42. The Unofficial St. Patrick's day in Champaign Urbana

To contact us Click HERE

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If you have been anywhere near the campustown on certain Fridays in March, and come up with a huge throng of greenish looking leprechauns, don't start pinching yourself to see if you are dreaming or not. You have just stumbled into the "Unofficial Saint Patrick's Day" in Chambana.

Here is what UofI wiki has to say about it:

Unofficial Saint Patrick's Day, or commonly known as Unofficial, is a local event on the Urbana-Champaign campus, which aims to replace the celebration of the official Saint Patrick's Day holiday with excessive drinking of alcohol.

Champaign bar owner Scott Cochrane created the event to increase business because the week of spring break on the academic calendar usually includes Saint Patrick's Day, which leads students to celebrate away from the campus.

The event is celebrated usually the weekend before the official Saint Patrick's Day holiday. Bars might open as early as 7 a.m., and students wear T-shirts with slogans such as "Drink 'til you're Irish" or "Irish I were drunk." One T-shirt slogan read: "Tap the keg, forget the class... it's Unofficial, so fill my glass!"

Things are not really as rosey as the above note suggests. On this day, you'll find a lot of underage drinkers, passed out here and there, or coming to class drunk. The police (Champaign, Urbana, County, and of course UofI ones) have a field day ... and nab a lot of underage drinkers.

However, things can often get deadly ... a few years ago, a UofI alumnus died when the motor bike she was riding crashed into a pole on Wright street between Green and Springfield. So, be careful when you are driving through campustown , better avoid going through the area altogether.

There is of course, the "official" Saint Patrick's day, but the drinking frenzy is much less on that one.

What's in a 600-page bill?

To contact us Click HERE

Watch Sen. Rand Paul (R.-Kentucky) as he takes off on a 600-page bill he received that was to be voted on before he and other U.S. Senators had time to read and understand it. He received the bill that morning and expected a vote on it that day.

Of course, reading it and understanding a bill are two different things.

And by the time you could read a 600-page bill, think somebody might have slipped in some changes?

It shouldn't matter what political party you are. Voting on something you don't know about should never happen.

No horsin' around in N.C.

To contact us Click HERE

Click to enlarge

North Carolina gets it right.

Check out this driver's license to be issued to some illegal immigrants. What's it say?

No legal status.

I guess they could just print "I'm illegal. Arrest me" on it.

Read the full article. This is North Carolina's response to the spineless, vote-seeking creeps in Washington who don't have the guts to enforce lawful-entry requirements to our country.

Tim Smith jury being chosen

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Jury selection started in the Timothy Smith murder trial today. Smith is on trial for the murder of Kurt Milliman in May 2011 and has been held in the McHenry County Jail since then on a $900,000 bail.

As is a defendant's right, Smith was present in the courtroom when the jury was selected. Of the first 15 jurors questioned, seven were excused, and eight were chosen as qualified to serve by 3:30PM. Jury selection continued. The trial is expected to take up this week and could end by Thursday, if weather doesn't interfere and cause an extension.

Prospective jurors were excused by Judge Prather and by request of the assistant public defender and the assistant state's attorney.


I shall not comment about the jurors who were excused or qualified until the conclusion of the trial, and possibly not even then.

Jurors were asked if they knew anything about the case or the accused; some acknowledged that they had heard of it, mostly from newspaper reporting shortly after it happened.

Judge Prather is very specific and methodical when she questions a prospective juror. Her questions are clear and complete, and it should be easy for a prospective juror to answer. She speaks in a clear voice and loudly enough to be heard throughout the courtroom.

If jury selection is completed today, then the trial will begin in opening statements tomorrow morning at 9:00AM in Courtroom 304. The prosecution has subpoenaed Smith's wife, Kimberly Holian Smith, to testify, and Judge Prather granted her use immunity last week. According to the State's Motion, if Kimberly Smith refuses to testify, she may expose herself to being found in contempt of court.

Beth Bentley - 144 weeks

To contact us Click HERE
As of yesterday, Beth Bentley has been missing 144 weeks. Beth vanished on May 23, 2010.

How many people know where she is?

I suggest that at least three do.

For a missing person case, this is really a strange one. In other parts of the country, when a person goes missing, people get excited. Friends take an interest; family searches endlessly; even strangers get involved. Law enforcement seeks leads from the public and shares information that might lead to finding the person.

In this case? Where is the information from law enforcement? The Woodstock Police Department claimed the lead, because Beth's disappearance was reported to Woodstock PD late Monday evening, May 24, 2010. However, initial reports indicated Beth had been in southern Illinois with her friend Jennifer Wyatt. Jenn says she drove Beth from Mount Vernon, Ill. to Centralia, Ill. and dropped her off near the Amtrak Station.

Supposedly, the Mount Vernon and Centralia Police Department had a hand in the investigation. So did the Jefferson County (Ill.) Sheriff's Department, since the Ridge home was in the county, not in the city limits of Mount Vernon. The Woodstock Police Department chief said the Illinois State Police was involved.

Beth and Jenn had gone to Mount Vernon, so that Jenn could visit her boyfriend, Ryan Ridge. Ryan and his brother, Nathan, were at a house in rural Mount Vernon owned by the Ridge family.

Police have never offered details of the week-end, from the time early Friday morning when Beth and Jenn would have arrived by car after leaving Woodstock Thursday evening. Or even from the time Beth and Jenn were supposed to have left Woodstock. What did one, two, three or four of them do over the week-end?

Three of them are available to talk about it. But they aren't. Why not?

42. The Unofficial St. Patrick's day in Champaign Urbana

To contact us Click HERE

---

If you have been anywhere near the campustown on certain Fridays in March, and come up with a huge throng of greenish looking leprechauns, don't start pinching yourself to see if you are dreaming or not. You have just stumbled into the "Unofficial Saint Patrick's Day" in Chambana.

Here is what UofI wiki has to say about it:

Unofficial Saint Patrick's Day, or commonly known as Unofficial, is a local event on the Urbana-Champaign campus, which aims to replace the celebration of the official Saint Patrick's Day holiday with excessive drinking of alcohol.

Champaign bar owner Scott Cochrane created the event to increase business because the week of spring break on the academic calendar usually includes Saint Patrick's Day, which leads students to celebrate away from the campus.

The event is celebrated usually the weekend before the official Saint Patrick's Day holiday. Bars might open as early as 7 a.m., and students wear T-shirts with slogans such as "Drink 'til you're Irish" or "Irish I were drunk." One T-shirt slogan read: "Tap the keg, forget the class... it's Unofficial, so fill my glass!"

Things are not really as rosey as the above note suggests. On this day, you'll find a lot of underage drinkers, passed out here and there, or coming to class drunk. The police (Champaign, Urbana, County, and of course UofI ones) have a field day ... and nab a lot of underage drinkers.

However, things can often get deadly ... a few years ago, a UofI alumnus died when the motor bike she was riding crashed into a pole on Wright street between Green and Springfield. So, be careful when you are driving through campustown , better avoid going through the area altogether.

There is of course, the "official" Saint Patrick's day, but the drinking frenzy is much less on that one.

What's in a 600-page bill?

To contact us Click HERE

Watch Sen. Rand Paul (R.-Kentucky) as he takes off on a 600-page bill he received that was to be voted on before he and other U.S. Senators had time to read and understand it. He received the bill that morning and expected a vote on it that day.

Of course, reading it and understanding a bill are two different things.

And by the time you could read a 600-page bill, think somebody might have slipped in some changes?

It shouldn't matter what political party you are. Voting on something you don't know about should never happen.