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* Please keep it Illinois-centric and be civil to each other. Thanks.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 8:12 am

Comments

Bulls are +1600 to win the Eastern Conference. They have a big game tonight against the Heat. I think I may spread a little tax refund money on Derozan and co getting to the finals.

Comment by Moved East Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 8:25 am
Might be a tease, but the songbirds have returned to our yard including a couple of Robins. Sun is out and temps warming to the high 50s today. Bring on Spring.

Comment by Give Me A Break Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 8:41 am
Saturday was a crazy day in men’s college basketball as 7 of the top 10 teams in the country lost including top-ranked Gonzaga. But it didn’t stop there. Chicago State (a 16.5 point underdog) pulled off the stunning upset of top-ranked WAC opponent New Mexico State with a basket with 2 seconds left. Good for Chicago State.

Comment by Cougar Watch Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 8:44 am
Cougar: Saturday was a “prep day” for the Big Dance, the madness is about to begin. Bring it on.

Comment by Give Me A Break Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 8:49 am
It’s a very sunny day in beautiful DuPage County, heading for 50 degrees. The “in like a lion” odds for March are pretty low this year.

Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 8:58 am
I’m curious about the time periods in IL that nuclear drills were done in IL. I do not remember ever experiencing these (in school from 72-85 in Mattoon Community school district #2). I remember tornado drills and fire drills. I remember my old elementary school was marked as a fallout shelter. And it had the horns but I do not recall them being set off? On twitter there appears to be a real geographic variation to who did them and who didn’t.

Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 9:19 am
Cermak: I was in school from 68-81. Central Illin0is. I remember doing them until maybe 3rd or 4th grade. 1971 or so.

Comment by Papa2008 Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 9:45 am
For significant periods in the last five years bond rating agencies have had Illinois general obligation bonds rated worse or the same as Russian sovereign debt. This means that depending on the agency and the time frame, those analysts were claiming that Illinois general obligation bonds presented a worse investment risk than Russian bonds. This makes it pretty clear that the bond ratings don’t have any actual correlation to investment risk and the rating agencies are nothing but pay for play fraudsters.

They certainly aren’t actually establishing a rating that is reflective of the actual investment risk. I think we should be encouraging the Attorney General’s office to open an investigation into their rating process and depending on what we find bring suit against them for the hundreds of millions in unnecessary interest that we have had to pay on our general obligation bonds while those fraudsters said investing in sovereign debt issued by a kleptocractic dictatorship after it had invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea was a safer investment than our bonds.

There should be consequences for their actions since they have made no effort to actually correlate the ratings to risk.

Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 9:46 am
In the 1950s when I lived in Chicago, the air raid sirens were set off in the middle of the night. A lot of people were worried about being nuked. It turned out it was to alert the city that the White Sox had just won the world series.

Comment by DuPage Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 9:53 am
DuPage
Won the AL pennant, not the World Series

Comment by Drake Mallard Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 10:02 am
DuPage, It was Sept. 22, at 9:43 p.m. Sox beat Cleveland to clinch the American League title. They went on to lose the World Series 4 games to 2.

Comment by The Magnificent Purple Walnut Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 10:02 am
===…White Sox had just won the world series.===

They won the pennant in 1959. Sadly, the did not win the World Series.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 10:04 am
1959 Gerry Staley got the save that game. Hope baseball gets its act together this week.

Comment by Galway Bay Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 10:06 am
“we should be encouraging the Attorney General’s office to open an investigation into their rating process … .”

Jamie Mai and Charles Ledley (named Jamie Shipley and Charlie Geller in the movie The Big Short) tried to sue the ratings agencies after the 2008 Mortgage Crisis. According to the closing notes, they were laughed out every law office the consulted with.

You’d have an easier task cleaning out the Augean Stables.

Comment by Anyone Remember Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 11:02 am
cermak_rd, in 1986 I did a story for our school paper about the fallout shelter (it was near the pools) I went down there with a janitor, looked around, and saw what few supplies remained.

there were all sorts of rumors about it, the reality was rather disapointing.

Comment by OneMan Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 11:11 am
- Drake Mallard - Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 10:02 am:

===DuPage
Won the AL pennant, not the World Series===

I stand corrected. Thank you.

Comment by DuPage Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 11:37 am
We did “duck and cover” drills in the lower level of Harvard Park Grade School in the 50’s, but I don’t remember the exact years. I graduated from high school in 1965. Grade school then was K - 6.

Comment by Behind the Scenes Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 11:43 am
For Springfield city government it’s New Year’s Eve. New Fiscal Year’s Eve, that is. The city FY23 budget year starts tomorrow.

Anyone know exactly why Springfield’s city fiscal years run March-February? Instead of the usual July-June for the state (or even perhaps due Oct.-Sept. to allow for state budget allocations to the city to be included in the city budget). March-February seems like a weird fiscal year time period.

Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Monday, Feb 28, 22 @ 12:17 pm