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-Drew

Everyone favors making our roads safer for citizens, but “Red Light Cameras” put revenue above safety. These cameras are supposed to help prevent accidents by taking pictures and issuing tickets to people who speed through intersections while the light is red. Instead they are being used as ATMs by some towns, making camera companies rich, and are actually increasing accidents in some intersections.

Last November the Village of Schaumburg installed a camera at Woodfield Mall. The camera generated $1 million in fines in just three months. It was estimated that 70% of the tickets issued by these cameras were sent to people who turned right on red legally. These individuals made a complete stop but they had to roll past the white line to see around potting boxes and other obstructions to their view. However, cameras cannot make judgment calls. Once your wheels cross the white line, a picture is taken and a ticket is sent to your home. Since there is no police officer present to evaluate the situation, how can you explain the incident should you take the time to go to court?

The Sixth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution provides that we all have the right to face our accuser. How do we face a camera? A camera, not a person, now has the ability to automatically accuse, convict and set the penalty on citizens. And, the ticket is sent to the owner of the car, not the driver. We have no recourse unless we decide to spend thousands of dollars to hire a lawyer and fight a one hundred dollar ticket.

If it was really about safety and not about revenue, why not just install “no turn on red” signs at troubled intersections? In some intersections where these cameras are currently installed, safety has suffered. There have been instances where people are trying to turn left when the light turns yellow. In order to avoid receiving a ticket from the camera, they hit the gas peddle to get out of the intersection and create an accident instead.

The other alarming fact is that the cameras are being installed by companies who receive 30 - 50% of the revenue. Illinois already has major corruption problems. The enormous dollar volume these companies could reap brings concerns of more pay to play politics. Camera companies and villages have every financial incentive in the world to issue as many tickets as possible. This is the real reason why you are seeing red light cameras popping up on every corner.

I am completely opposed to red light cameras and believe we should do everything we can to repeal existing laws that allow these cameras to operate in Illinois. We need creative solutions to our traffic and revenue problems that do not infringe on our liberty.

MCC ponders Packard duties

CRYSTAL LAKE – Under fire for continuing to pay former President Walt Packard, the McHenry County College Board discussed ways Thursday to put him to work.

“We need to maximize the value that Dr. Packard could be providing to this institution,” trustee Donna Kurtz said.

Packard stepped down as president in February. He now serves as president emeritus, a job that requires no regular office hours but retains his former salary of $188,564 a year through June 30, 2010.

Kurtz suggested several ventures for Packard to work on, such as developing a merit-based pay system for the college’s administrators. Other board members proposed having Packard assist administrators with ongoing projects that he had worked on before stepping down.

Packard’s contract stipulates that such work assignments be submitted to him in writing with reasonable deadlines..(read full)

The Aerospace Industries Association praised Illinois Congressmen Don Manzullo on Friday for his efforts in clarifying rules that made it hard for U.S. manufacturers of civil aircraft, parts and components to sell overseas.

Since the Export Administration Act of 1979 expired in 2001, the State Department – which has jurisdiction over exports of military items – lumped many commercial aircraft parts in with military hardware. The latter requires much more stringent review and a special export license. As a result, American manufacturers incurred significant costs and delays trying to interpret federal regulations, putting them at a competitive disadvantage with foreign companies.

Particularly vulnerable were parts designed for commercial applications that the government said could be altered for military uses, Manzullo spokesman Rich Carter said.

“The problem is the Department of State has been extremely reluctant to give up authority, and we’ve gotten into a tug-of-war between the Department of State and the Department of Commerce,” Carter said. “[Part of the Act] was being interpreted wrongly by the administration. Don met with the State and Commerce departments and explained that by doing this, they were slowing down our exports; and our aerospace exports really are what’s driving our economy right now.”

Section 17(c) of the Act states that any product that is standard equipment – certified by the Federal Aviation Administration in civil aircraft and that is an integral part of those aircraft – and is exported to friendly nations, still is subject to certain export controls. While this does not affect any McHenry County company directly, Carter said, it does affect aviation part suppliers such as Guardian Electric in Woodstock.

“Two or three years ago, it really started being more and more of a problem as you had new cases of how the State Department chose to interpret things,” said Remy Nathan, assistant vice president of international affairs for Aerospace Industries Association in Arlington, Va. “You started having companies pass down the liability risk; please assure me that whatever you send me is Commerce controlled and not State Department controlled. … If you are a small manufacturer, how do you wait until someone tells you?”

Classification of a product as a military item results in significant licensing and compliance requirements that affected its use and the operation of any aircraft in which it is installed, Carter said. Nathan added that failure to get the necessary clearance could result in fines, even jail.

“For the longest time, this was the kind of issue that people thought, ‘We’re never going to get anywhere,’ ” Nathan said. “In so many ways, the administration defers to Congress.”

Manzullo, R-Egan, co-chaired the Export Controls Working Group with Reps. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., and Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.

-Drew

HEBRON — Cannabis plants valued at nearly $4 million were eradicated from the Hebron area in two unrelated operations this week, authorities said.

A Michigan man was arrested Wednesday after police eradicated more than 2,000 cannabis plants from a field southeast of Hebron. Miguel Talavera-Lopez, 25, of Battle Creek, Mich., was charged with unlawful production of cannabis sativa plants, a Class 2 felony.

Narcotics division Sgt. John Koziol said the cannabis growing area, located in a wooded area surrounded by corn and bean fields, was discovered on a routine police flyover. Koziol said police had been investigating the area for about a year. According to reports, police entered the area Wednesday and took Talavera-Lopez into custody. Another person fled on foot. A search of the area was conducted with the McHenry County Sheriff’s K-9 unit but the second person was not located, reports said. According to reports, the subjects were living in the cannabis field to take care of the plants.

According to police, the street value of the confiscated plants was about $2 million. (read full)