With two school attacks resulting in fatalities on consecutive days and a third incident intercepted this past week, it's time we start doing more than just talking again.
However, instead of talking about how we must protect our schools from mad men, this time the conversation must focus on mad school children.
For the unabridged version of this story, subscribe to The Daily Journal's print edition or E-edition
Be careful what you wish for is one of those lifelong warnings we tend to take for granted. We still do it and often times regret it when we get what we wished for.
Not too long ago Placed Rated Almanac, a publication unfamiliar to me, named our community the 354th worst place to live in all of America.
Being a lot younger then, it really got under my skin. Friends from around the country contacted me wanting to know if this was the place I bragged about. We were the national stickpin cushion for a while and we still have gazebos as a reminder. Yet, we kept right on living and headed into the economic downturn just like the rest of the country.
Like a child, I remember wishing we could be named No. 1 for something. My wish has been granted. Well, sort of. In a list compiled by CBSNews.
A federal judge has sentenced former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Chicago, to 2 1/2 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to misusing $750,000 in campaign fund for personal items.
His wife and former Chicago alderwoman, Sandi Jackson, who pleaded guilty to tax fraud, was sentenced to one year.
Jackson briefly represented portions of eastern Will and Kankakee counties after the state legislature redrew the boundaries for congressional districts in 2010.
"I'm glad that he's going to jail," said former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson, D-Crete, who was defeated by Jackson when she attempted to regain her seat in Congress. "Thirty months probably isn't enough.
"If you look at the sentences for [former Gov. George] Ryan and [former Gov. Rod] Blagojevich, they were much longer. What Jesse did was a lot worse. He thought he was above the law at every turn his whole career."
U.
