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Friday, Aug 19, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* One storm-related stage collapse may be a “fluke,” but we’ve seen three of these in the past month. Back on July 17th, one of those big scaffold rigs above a stage collapsed on Cheap Trick up in Canada. Then there was the horrific rigging collapse in Indiana, which now has a death toll of six. A scaffold collapsed on a Belgium concert stage area this week, killing five.

Every venue needs to make sure their scaffolding is safe and that they can and will get people the heck out of the way of incoming storms. Period. No more of this, please.

* The Tubes are playing at the State Fair tonight. I saw them back in 1981, when I was living in Munich. I had high hopes for that show, but was somewhat disappointed. They’d drastically toned down their act by then. Gone were the X-Rated antics and, more importantly, the Zappaesque music and attitude. Instead, it was obvious they were going for the Top 40, and they made it. But the music just wasn’t as good.

Gimme the old stuff every time…

Seeing you now just leaves me disgusted

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Sponsor claims that gaming bill is “75 percent of the way toward a resolution”

Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Are the gaming bill negotiations working? Maybe…

[State Sen. Terry Link, D-Waukegan, one of the gambling bill’s sponsors] said he thinks the governor and the bill’s sponsors are 75 percent of the way toward a resolution.

Quinn also hinted at a timetable. “I think here by the end of the summer, we’ll have some basic principles that we have to have,” he said.

* But getting the governor to comment publicly about specifics has been nearly impossible. Yesterday, he told reporters that the Gaming Board had identified three regulatory problems with the bill, but he didn’t even say what those were. Considering that many or even most of the Board’s objections were shown to be without merit, maybe that’s why he wouldn’t elaborate. And Mayor Emanuel pointed out yesterday that he was for proper oversight…

“Jobs and proper oversight go hand in hand,” Emanuel said during an online chat hosted by the Better Government Association. “They are not at loggerheads.”

“I want the right oversight, because I want the integrity of this, and it can be done,” Emanuel added.

* Until now, one of the few specific problems Quinn has cited is that he doesn’t want slots at the State Fair Grandstand, even though people bet on horses almost every day during the event…

“Harness racing has been at the fair for a long time, but when you put in slot machines, that’s a wholly different situation,” Quinn said. “Who needs slot machines when you have (Grandstand entertainer) MC Hammer?”

But those slots will mean money for Downstate programs…

A gaggle of expansion supporters flooded the rally, wearing bright orange T-shirts asking Quinn to sign the legislation.

Gerard Fabrizius, chairman of the Kane-DuPage Soil and Water Conservation District, was among them, though he didn’t have an orange shirt because organizers ran out.

The gambling package includes the promise of new money for districts like his, which is why he traveled to Springfield to show his support.

“He needs to sign it because we’re floundering locally,” Fabrizius said.

* Quinn did offer up something new yesterday. Apparently, the existing casinos have gotten to him…

“I don’t think we can have what’s called cannibalization of gaming in Illinois, where there’s so many different places there’s gambling that it ends up hurting the overall product,” Quinn said. “We have to do this in a prudent way.”

Considering all that Illinois money going to Indiana’s casinos, however, this may not be as big a problem as it may appear. Also, Quinn has publicly dissed Danville’s bid to host a casino. Where the heck would they cannibalize from?

* Watch Gov. Quinn discuss the gaming issue…

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State Fair videos and pics

Thursday, Aug 18, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* As usual, I couldn’t get the official State Fair video to import to my computer, but, luckily for us, Illinois Statehouse News was also at yesterday’s “celebrity” harness race…

Many congrats to Mica, who was more than a little nervous about her first time racing. Now, of course, she wants in every year. Patterson has been such a braggart about winning last year’s race that it was just a wee bit satisfying to see him out of the money this year…

The winner’s circle…

* Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon’s band played at the Miller Tent after the race…

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The First Amendment

Tuesday, Aug 16, 2011 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I’m almost an absolutist when it comes to the 1st Amendment, so I have mixed feelings about the new law that prohibits protests within 300 feet of military funerals. But I have no mixed emotions at all about the idiotic morons at the Westboro Baptist “Church”…

Members of an anti-gay fundamentalist group known for their protests of military funerals will have to stay a bit farther away from such services under a measure Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law Sunday as the Illinois State Fair observed its Veterans Day.

In contrast with the shouting members of the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church who often engage in outside funerals, Quinn quietly signed off on the “Let Them Rest In Peace Act,” which pushes protestors back another 100 feet to 300 feet - the equivalent of a football field’s length - at military funerals. Protests remain banned 30 minutes before and after funeral services.

A Westboro member labeled the new law as unconstitutional and said the church would continue its protests as it fights the laws in court.

“They can make (the ban distance) 100 miles, and it changes exactly nothing,” said Margie Phelps, a lawyer and the daughter of Westboro pastor Fred Phelps. “You all are delusional if you think you’re going to win this one.”

Oy.

* Background…

For those who aren’t familiar with the church, whose double-digit membership consists mostly of the children and other relations of patriarch Fred Phelps, they believe end times are nigh owing to our un-Christian ways. To ensure their own salvation, members go to soldiers’ funerals and other charged occasions like the first day of same-sex marriage in New York and scream and sing slurs while trampling the flag and rotating an array of aggressively obnoxious signs in the hopes of drawing media attention — which they inevitably do.

As church members see it, the point of yelling at the damned (pretty much everyone but them) isn’t to save us, but only to ensure we sinners have been warned so that our damnation won’t be on their hands. It’s nutty and not very consequential, though of course the groups the church targets sometimes have a tough time seeing it that way.

Talking to Margie Phelps, one of Fred’s daughters and the most vocal by far of the New York contingent, she boasted about how the media spreads her message despite her open contempt for it. Reading the Voice, she said, “I just skim through with my finger looking for our words. I don’t care how you encase them.”

Church members, she continued, had mastery of “the press, and Twitter, and social media. We’re skilled social marketers,” she said, crediting God with that development. Throughout the conversation, she lapsed into media jargon, like “close the loop,” alternating those thoughts with an almost random stream of vitriol.

* Speaking of free speech, WBBM TV truly ought to be ashamed of itself…

WBBM aired a story June 30 about a shooting in which two teenagers were wounded. It included video of the 4-year-old saying he wanted his own gun. The station edited out the rest of the boy’s statement that he wanted the gun because he wants to be a police officer.

Through communications director Shawnelle Richie, WBBM management admitted that employees made a mistake airing the video and compounded the error by editing the clip to take the boy’s comments out of context.

Video…

This was aired during the height of the alleged “wilding” wave, which resulted in a media frenzy. That CBS2 would actually lie about a story in order to perpetuate the craziness is beyond irresponsible. People ought to be fired for this, and those people should never be allowed to work in journalism ever again.

* And Eric Zorn flagged this story about members of Congress who are charging a fee to attend town hall meetings…

It’s no secret why members of Congress would shy away from holding open town hall meetings – it’s no fun getting yelled at by angry constituents or having an uncomfortable question become an unfortunate YouTube moment. By outsourcing the events to third parties that charge an entry fee to raise money, members of Congress can eliminate most of the riffraff while still – in some cases – allowing in reporters and TV cameras for a positive local news story.

Thoughts?

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