Nowadays text message is gaining ground as the electronic method of choice for delivering quick notes. And why not, it is easy, efficient, and almost everyone has the technology.
Today, Valentine’s Day, is a testament to the reach of the much used tool
According to calculations by VeriSign, Inc., the leading provider of digital infrastructure for the networked world, a record 725 million mobile messages, including text messages, are expected to be sent and received across carriers and mobile application providers on Valentine’s Day 2007 in North America alone. […]
Valentine’s Day has traditionally been the busiest day of the year for mobile messages.
Simple messages are only the start of it. The modern-day Romeo now has a plethora of virtual love arrows at his disposal.
The Text-Me service will even send amorous verses penned by a poet to the object of your affection.
Users will be able to send Valentine picture messages available on the Vodafone site or even post an online message to their loved one which will appear on a giant screen in Piccadilly Circus, above the statue of Eros.
“The discrete nature of text means you are never restricted from having private communication while in a public place,” said David Taylor, Orange’s Vice-President of Marketing.
Talk about lazy. “Sorry honey, I don’t have time to talk or think of a 5 word message myself.†Geez.
The “tech age†offers other means of sending Valentine’s Day love:
…Cingular created a Valentine’s Day shop offering dozens of love songs for download as ring tones for $1.99, including Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” or Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me.”
A love story in the electronic age…
Alex Treviño, 40, KSAT 12 news editor, exchanges nearly 500 text messages monthly with his girlfriend, Cherry Oclima, 33. She travels frequently so he gave her a Web camera and a Bluetooth wireless headset. The two even met on the Internet. […]
On Valentine’s Day, she’ll be in California so they plan to celebrate via Web cameras and instant messages.
Anyone else spreading electronic affection on this special day?
[Edited slightly for length and reposted because of a tech problem. Ironic, eh? Also, Rich didn’t write this, despite the author name below. Paul wrote it.]
…The same goes in Illinois. Public corruption is not a Democratic problem or a Republican problem. It’s an Illinois problem. A huge problem. […]
“We don’t seem to be as mindful as we need to be about appearances of impropriety,†Obama told me.
Then, positioning himself above the fray, he added: “I can’t judge where there have been improprieties and where there haven’t been because I haven’t been intimately involved in what’s been happening in state and local politics over the past couple years.â€
Anybody following Illinois politics, even tangentially, knows what’s up in Illinois: Pols and their pals are gorging themselves at the public trough, and those pals are in turn helping the pols.
Illinois put Obama into the national spotlight. He could show his appreciation by putting its people before the gang.
First, as Aaron gently notes, Obama’s response is total bulloney. He doesn’t read the Chicago papers? He doesn’t check the TV news when he’s home? Give me a break.
Chambers connects Obama’s statements on Illinois corruption to political expediency - putting partisanship (he compares the political process to gang loyalty, which is absolutely correct) above the people.
The national media probably won’t start on this topic for a while, if ever, so it’s up to the Illinois outlets to keep the pressure on Obama. He’s so intensely popular and so widely covered here that even one comment from him might rattle the establishment to its core. It’s high time that he spoke out.
We support a proposal advanced by Rep. Jim Sacia, R-Pecatonica, to ban the use of hand-held cell phones by drivers in this state.
There is ample scientific research to support the anecdotal conclusion that a whole lot of drivers are guilty of what has been called DWY — driving while yakking. Likewise, it’s just obvious that dialing, groping for cell phones in pockets and purses, and talking on them while behind the wheel can be unsafe distractions.
The Insurance Information Institute issued a report this month saying that 231 million Americans subscribe to wireless communication devices such as cell phones. Back in 1990, when the technology was in its infancy, only 4.3 million people had cell phones. The current report cites research showing that 73 percent of those cell- phone owners talk on them while driving and that use, not surprisingly, is highest among young drivers.
There’s no disputing that cell-phone use while driving can be a distraction, although not the most dangerous one. For instance, reaching for a moving or falling object in a car increased the risk of a crash or near crash by nine times, while cell- phone use increased the risk by 1.3 times, according to a 2006 study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
I’ve seen other reports that claim all cell-phone use, hand-held or hands-free, is a distraction.
Either way, though, read the whole editorial and then come back and debate the question: Should hand-held cell-phone use by drivers be banned in Illinois? Why or why not?
This would sure be a tricky vote for many if Lang and Bost ever get this resolution called on the floor.
In an admitted “draconian approach” to school funding, two state legislators proposed a constitutional amendment Tuesday that would eliminate the use of property taxes for schools within three years and force the state to pick up the tab.
The goal of the amendment, sponsored by Reps. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, and Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, is to force legislators to take action on school funding. The lawmakers say that the state system for funding local schools is uneven because districts with low property values can draw only a fraction of the money that schools in districts with higher property values can. The House resolution, if passed, would place a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November 2008 that would require the elimination of school property taxes by 2011. The amendment would not specify how the state would replace the property taxes — which make up about 55 percent of school funding statewide.
Instead, the amendment would give legislators a firm three-year deadline to come up with a school-funding bill before the clock on property taxes ran out.
Neither Lang nor Bost would speculate as to where the funding source would come from, saying only that raising sales taxes would not be a good option.
Michigan abolished property taxes about a decade ago, replacing them with sales and cigarette tax hikes. The new increases were supposed to capture more money from the state’s huge tourism industry, but as the Daily Herald notes…
…a turn in economic times left the state without enough money to pay for the educational reforms without property taxes.
The D-H also had this quote at the bottom…
Lang noted a constitutional amendment wouldn’t go to the governor’s desk, but instead straight to voters.
“Frankly,†said Lang, “and I hope the governor doesn’t take it wrong, his view is irrelevant.â€
One of the administrative charges against former CMS personnel chief Dawn DeFraties and her assistant Michael Casey is that they sped up the applications process for people with political connections. There does seem to be evidence for that, even if their attorney denies it…
Some state job applications were handled speedily while others waited months to be processed, a witness said Tuesday in a hearing for two state workers who were fired after being accused of rigging the hiring process.
However…
But the same witness, Don Motley of the Department of Central Management Services, testified under cross-examination that there’s no rule specifying the order in which applications must be recorded after they’ve been evaluated. […]
In fact, he said, it’s common for applications for some jobs to be graded and recorded immediately when an agency wants to hire someone for that position.
So, one of the reasons they were fired was for breaking a rule that doesn’t exist and for doing something that is apparently common practice. Perfect. [Emphasis added]
Attorneys for the state also questioned Motley about more than 180 job applications that they contend were never entered into the computer system at all. Among the charges against DeFraties and Casey is that when a connected applicant failed an employment test, the information was not put into the system.
Motley said he searched state computers for the names provided by attorneys for the state but found no evidence that information for them was entered.
But…
[DeFraties/Casey attorney Carl] Draper argued that the method Motley used to search for the applications was vulnerable to error.
Without the details, I can’t tell you which side is more credible here. But if Draper can show that the search was, indeed, in error, then woe is the state’s case.
The state’s executive inspector general says he supports publicly releasing some of his findings, something the law currently doesn’t allow. […]
Under current law, the office cannot disclose information from its files and reports. The office investigates complaints of fraud, waste, abuse and misconduct by employees in agencies under Governor Rod Blagojevich’s control. […]
In the annual report, the inspector general’s office said it found evidence to back up 64 complaints out of the 1,278 it received. The office also referred six cases to federal prosecutors for possible legal action.
Also, at least 13 state employees resigned, were discharged or are in the process of being fired.
Natarus claims to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week managing Chicago’s ’super’ ward, which is bigger and richer than any other city in Illinois. He’s a favorite to win re-election but Brendan Reilly has more money and political support and acumen than any previous opponent which gives him a shot at an upset.
* Wal-Mart begins contributing to incumbent aldermanic campaigns
And it’s no coincidence that the most secure incumbents also head up some of the few Democratic ward organizations that retained patronage power under Mayor Richard Daley’s administration.
* Tribune City Council Endorsements: 20th through 24th wards
His crowds in Cedar Rapids and Waterloo were huge […] even though some of these folks were ringers who trekked in from Illinois. They can’t vote in an Iowa caucus, although being from Illinois they’ll probably figure out a way to do it. (Let the record show that the first question Obama took at an Iowa town meeting was from some guy from Naperville, Illinois.)
* Stroger finds $25 million for state’s attorney, public defender, and other programs:
The money will come from the transfer of $13.2 million from the Forest Preserves, $4.25 million from the sale of the old Domestic Violence Courthouse, the elimination of jobs exempt from the federal Shakman decree and other sources
* Tribune: The immaturity and clumsiness of Todd Stroger
