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* NEW Illinois statehouse press corp big winners at journalism awards ceremony

* Not all saying cheers to wine bill

Some supporters said Illinois could ultimately see more wine business if out-of-state wine retailers decide to set up shop in Illinois to avoid the proposed law’s restrictions.

But some lawmakers said successful Illinois wineries would suffer as well and the new regulations would punish them for growing. As proposed, the largest Illinois wine producers would lose the ability to sell directly to restaurants and retailers and instead would have to enter into agreements with distributors.

* Illinois lawmakers OK bill covering wine purchases

* Missouri, Illinois working on a bridge plan

* U of I hopes to land world’s fastest computer

* Vrdolyak pleads not guilty to new federal charges

* Illinois beaches rank high in grime

Illinois ranks third among the five states with the highest frequency of contaminated beaches last year, according to an annual report released Tuesday from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Water samples at the state’s most popular beaches fell short of national standards 15 percent of the time, the report found. It also cited Jackson Park Beach at 63rd Street in Chicago as the fourth most polluted beach in the nation, with samples found to be contaminated more than half of the time.

* Minority firm win more city business

* Daley joins Sharpton rally

* Worker claims Shakman violations

*Alderman like revamped Olympic Village

* EPA cites 6 coal plants in IL

* Union election growing volatile

* New lawsuit hits union official - It’s at least the 5th to target candidates in Local 150 election

* Keyes backers to attend Ames straw poll

posted by Paul Richardson
Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 7:46 am

Comments

What, Paul’s back?

Comment by The 'Broken Heart' of Rogers Park Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 7:54 am
:)

Comment by Paul Richardson Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 7:55 am
Looks like the return of “Wirtz’s Law” with that wine bill.

Comment by Gregor Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 7:56 am
Great, rather than eliminate the liquor distributors, we continue to enrich them.

Why don’t we figure out the distributor’s markup, call it a tax and eliminate the liquor distributors.

The taxpayer stays with the same costs and we eliminate a needless middleman.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 8:15 am
Overtime is like a bad accident, you want to look away but you can’t. Glad you’re helping Paul. Rich has been looking very frazzled as of late.

Comment by jwscott72 Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 8:22 am
“Supercomputers are series of computers linked together to provide greater processing power than any one machine can.”

Anyone who wants to build their own “supercomputer” at home can simply acquire a bunch of old, outdated workstations, install Linux, and use PVM or an alternative, all for free.

“Illinois ranks third among the five states with the highest frequency of contaminated beaches last year, according to an annual report released Tuesday from the Natural Resources Defense Council.”

Despite this, some people still think that it is a good idea to allow companies like BP to further contaminate Lake Michigan with pollution. Amazing.

“Midwest Generation owns two coal plants in Chicago (in Pilsen and Little Village), two in Will County (in Joliet and Romeoville), one in Waukegan and one outside Peoria.”

Actually, it’s TWO plants in Joliet. There are both a newer and older plant on opposite sides of the Des Plaines River. In addition, technically, they’re in Joliet Township, in unincorporated Will County, and actually much closer to the Village of Rockdale than the City of Joliet.

“The average person may not be aware of the tumultuous campaign, but they should know that the union is an instrumental part of the building boom that has occurred in Will County in recent years, Sweeney said.”

Unfortunately, this is true. Will County is growing faster than its infrastructure can support; and it isn’t very well balanced growth, tending to be mostly residential, which creates a lot of commuter traffic and logistic problems for communities everywhere between there and Chicago.

Comment by Squideshi Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 8:33 am
So Ill Loves Rockdale.

That is all.

I know, not a very substantive post. How’s this: Syl’s double-baked potato rocks.

Comment by So Ill Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 8:37 am
Alan Keyes must be looking for publicity to bolster his non-political career opportunities because he is politically radioactive after his dismal showing here in Illinois.Particpating in the iowa straw poll or any other political contest is utterly ridiculous. Please remind me who thought it was to slate him as the Republican nominee for US Senate in Illinois?

Comment by Captain America Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 8:39 am
Paul, I hope you re being well-remunerated for helping Ruch out, now that your internship is over.

You might want to consider adding a reference/link to the Stateline.org story about awards for statehouse reporting, since a number of Illinois journalists were honored: Bethany Carson, Schoenberg, Wheeler, a guy named Rush from the SJR also bot a prestigious award for a series on Freedom of Information or lack thereof. I believe CF bloggers/subscribers would be interested.

Comment by Captain America Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 8:53 am
The Galena winemaker is going to close? Then how will how I teach the twins what about terrible wine? I had this all planned out: “Kids, this is a product of Bordeaux. Now this is the swill they produce in Galena. See the difference?”

Seriously, I am amazed that the place stays in business. The stuff is awful.

Lynfred, on the other hand, used to produce a decent Chardonnay. Not the best, but worth drinking.

To get back to the political angle:

This does show the incredible influence of the Wirtz lobbyists. If you have enough money, you can get things done.

Comment by Skeeter Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 8:59 am
The Midwest Generation plant “outside Peoria” is actually just south of Pekin, on the other side of the Illinois River and about 15 miles southeast of Peoria. It’s usually referred to as Powerton.

Comment by Lainer Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 9:08 am
“So Ill Loves Rockdale.”

Most people, even those in Will County, don’t know that the Village of Rockdale even exists. They think it is part of the City of Joliet, which is ironic because within the municipal limits is the historic site of Mound Jolliet, where Louis Jolliet once set up camp. Of course, Mound Jolliet no longer exists, having been mined and all of its clay turned into tile.

Trivia: Did you know that the City of Joliet was originally named Juliet; and neighboring Romeoville was originally Romeo? Romeo became Romeoville after Juliet became Joliet.

Comment by Squideshi Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 9:12 am
How does this bill benefit Wirtz? First of all, as I read the bill, the legislation allows more wine to be directly shipped to consumers. Currently, consumers can only purchase 2 cases of wine per year. Now every person 21 or older can purchase up to 12 cases of wine per year from every winery. Why would Wirtz (or any distributor for that matter) want more alcohol sold directly to consumers? These sales circumvent the distributor.

Secondly, the provision that Lynfred and Galena say are going to “put them out of business” was not done by Wirtz but rather was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court. Do you honestly think Wirtz pushed legislation so he could distribute that swill? Give me a break!

Comment by Not a Wirtz Fan but... Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 9:14 am
Rockdale!!? They only have three businesses. One of which is the afore mentioned Syls Fine Foods.

Comment by Milorad Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 9:16 am
Squid –

I was born in J-town. Parents still live there. Cut through Rockdale every time I come home. Better get that speed down to 30 coming off 80, though…if you’re at 32, you’re paying for it!

Comment by So Ill Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 9:19 am
Paul, you are a glutton for punishment — but a welcome byline!! Thanks for coming back …

Comment by jaundiced eye Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 9:31 am
“Better get that speed down to 30 coming off 80, though…if you’re at 32, you’re paying for it!”

The I-80 bridge over the Des Plaines River in Joliet is one of the few places that I know of where the speed limit on an interstate changes so rapidly from 65 to 45.

Incidentally, you get a pretty good view of BOTH “Joliet” coal-fired power plants from that bridge, as well as the Brandon Lock, connecting the combined Des Plaines River, Sanitary & Ship Canal, and Illinois & Michigan Canal with the rest of the Illinois Waterway on down to the Mississippi River. There’s also a huge dam here, on which I believe that the City of Joliet should install turbines in order to generate municipal power. (There actually once was a public waterworks near this spot, supplying power to the City; but that was an awful long time ago, and only found in black and white pictures of the time.)

Oh, and I wouldn’t recommend swimming further on down the waterway–it’s where PECO/ComEd/Exelon/Midwest Generation regularly dumps radioactive Tritium into the water, inbetween their multiple “accidental” spills.

Comment by Squideshi Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 9:35 am
2008: Keyes vs. Obama - Rematch !!!

Comment by ZC Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 9:45 am
Milo — the other two businesses are bars, right?

I love the bridges in Joliet…love the backstory, about how all the town had money for was bridges other towns decided they didn’t want, so they took whatever they could get. They all offer pretty good views. Just stay out of the river.

Comment by So Ill Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 10:06 am
ZC…very amusing. actually, maybe it will
be a rematch when Obama runs again for his
Senate seat. re MSNBC fact check with David
Schuster, he did not give the right info on
his own speech on Pakistan…..Dodd was correct
in his attack. President of Canada? hey, maybe
Obama can go up there and change their
laws now that he thinks they have a President.
the amazing light weight of obama.

Comment by amy Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 10:20 am
Is “common connoisseur” an oxymoron?

Comment by steve schnorf Wednesday, Aug 8, 07 @ 8:16 pm