The search for the elusive motive continues...

Fort Hood shooting suspect conscious, talking, hospital says - CNN.com: "Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the suspect in last week's mass shooting at the Fort Hood Army Post, is conscious and talking, according to a spokesman for the Army hospital where he is being treated.

Authorities have not identified a motive in Thursday's attack that left 13 dead and 42 others wounded."
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Yes, it must be a daunting task to find the motive. You just have all these unrelated facts. Calls himself Palestinian, sympathizes with killing Americans, doesn't want to go to Afghanistan, screams about Allah before he shoots, tried to connect with radical Islamic groups on the internet...it is all so confusing. Maybe if you put a supercomputer on the job for a few years it could crank out some sort of common thread here.

The bigger question is how the US military can pussyfoot around with somebody like this for so long. Apparently they are more concerned with not hurting people's ethnic and religious sensibilities than with protecting their own people.

New Study Says American Cities Are on the Verge of a Rat Invasion - ABC News

New Study Says American Cities Are on the Verge of a Rat Invasion - ABC News: "'The problem of rats is just a symptom of a declining and weakening infrastructure, and it's one of the more visible symptoms of depressed cities struggling to face their problems,' says Mr. Kaukeinen in an interview.

Partly to blame are politicians' budgetary choices, the economy, and, yes, even greenie environmentalists who propose wide-open green spaces that, it turns out, usually evolve into urban versions of a Sandals resort for rats."
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Foreclosures + recession + environmentalists = rats? There's an equation I had never thought about. There are plenty of rats in Chicago. I was walking to the Halsted station on the Blue Line and a rat the size of a loaf of bread scurried into the station and down the ramp ahead of me. They have no manners whatsoever, believe me. They are almost as bad as bike messengers.

Calculated Risk: Employment Report: 190K Jobs Lost, 10.2% Unemployment Rate

Calculated Risk: Employment Report: 190K Jobs Lost, 10.2% Unemployment Rate
If you want some historical perspective, take a look at the second graph that accompanies the post I linked to. It is a shocker.

Many California jobs 'saved' by stimulus funds weren't in jeopardy - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee

Many California jobs 'saved' by stimulus funds weren't in jeopardy - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee: "Up to one-fourth of the 110,000 jobs reported as saved by federal stimulus money in California probably never were in danger, a Bee review has found."
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There are numerous scattered reports from all over the nation to the same effect. It is beginning to look like a deliberate deception.

Unemployment Rate Tops 10 Percent as 16 Million People Look for Jobs - FOXNews.com

Unemployment Rate Tops 10 Percent as 16 Million People Look for Jobs - FOXNews.com
Boy, that recovery is just rocking right along, isn't it?

ConsumerMan: Chinese drywall a big threat - ConsumerMan- msnbc.com

ConsumerMan: Chinese drywall a big threat - ConsumerMan- msnbc.com: "The problem is enormous. It’s estimated that as many as 100,000 homes across the country, built between 2004 and 2008, could have defective and potentially dangerous Chinese drywall.

The bad wallboard has excessively high levels of sulfur. Homeowners complain the fumes given off make them sick and corrode the copper in home wiring, fixtures and appliances, including computers, televisions and air conditioners."
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What percentage of these homes--new, built between 2004 and 2008--are in CIDs? I would say nearly all, but I wonder what others have to say. Needless to say, the lawyers are all over this.

Drive-bys in the Poconos

Update: Police search for suspect in drive-by shooting of 17-year-old in Emerald Lakes Monday | PoconoRecord.com: "LONG POND -- Police are seeking the public's help with an apparent drive-by shooting of a 17-year-old teen as he rode a motorized scooter on Glade Drive South in the Emerald Lakes private community Monday night...The Emerald Lakes development was the scene of another shooting over the weekend in which four people were wounded outside a private party around 12:45 a.m. Sunday."
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Hmmmmm. Private parties, private community...drive by shootings?
Thanks to Cynthia Stephens for this link.

Daily Herald | Utility tax moves forward in Antioch, IL

Daily Herald | Utility tax moves forward in Antioch: "The village has cut the equivalent of 20 full-time positions in the last two years, Keim said. Officials have also cut nearly $500,000 in spending this year.

With the failure of Neumann Homes, the stalled Antioch Market Place shopping center project and a decline in revenue from building permits, Keim said the village is on target to finish their fiscal year nearly $500,000 in the red. The total operating budget is just over $10.5 million.

'We can't close that gap,' he said."
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So Antioch is raising taxes. In a recession. In a working class/middle class community where people are struggling to survive as it is. And note the story I posted below: corporate developer/bad citizen Neumann Homes is partly to blame for Antioch's dire straits, but Neumann is suing Antioch for return of its impact fees. Nerve? Oh, yes.

Daily Herald | Communities try to help as suburban foreclosure crisis grows

Daily Herald | Communities try to help as suburban foreclosure crisis grows: "Elgin is using federal money to help rehab foreclosed homes. Lake County intends to use stimulus funds to acquire, fix up and resell abandoned or foreclosed properties. Prosperous towns like Geneva, Schaumburg, Wheaton and Naperville are looking for ways to direct desperate homeowners to community resources."
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Foreclosures are up 18% in the third quarter. Of 2009. Tell me more about this so-called "recovery" we are enjoying?

Daily Herald | Bankrupt Neumann Homes sues towns to return impact fees

Daily Herald | Bankrupt Neumann Homes sues towns to return impact fees: "Neumann Homes Inc., which had been one of the 10 largest homebuilders in the Chicago area before filing bankruptcy last year, has sued more than two dozen municipal governments on a theory that, if valid, could be another hit in already-depressed local budgets.

Neumann, based in Warrenville, sued towns including Antioch; Naperville; Kenosha, Wis.; and Aurora, Colo., to get back impact fees, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago."
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This photo shows what they left behind in the subdivision close to my house. They wrecked a huge natural landscape and left it looking like the moon. Then they went bankrupt. Antioch had to fix bad drainage problems, plow snow, etc., and they are in huge budget trouble (see my post above). Now Neumann is suing for their impact fees. From where I sit, Antioch should be suing Neumann for the "impact" they made.

And here is the supreme irony: Antioch tried to stop this development from the outset, refusing to permit it. Neumann Homes sued Antioch and won, with some judge cramming the development down the village's throat. So, this corporate bad citizen sued to impose the development on everybody, then went bankrupt, leaving a devastated landscape, bereft owners, and a village in trouble. And now...they sue Antioch again to get their impact fees back.

This is why people don't like real estate developers. Or their lawyers.

Illinois budget

Just got a message from the President of the University of Illinois system. Good news: no furloughs before the end of 2009. Bad news: the state owes the U of I system $317 million that has been billed but not paid.

They haven't paid our dental plan, either, which is why the dental plan won't pay my kids' dentist.

But look at the up side. The state legislature just guaranteed all seniors free rides on public transportation, no matter how rich they are.

The Golden State isn't worth it -- latimes.com

The Golden State isn't worth it -- latimes.com: "Joel Kotkin of NewGeography.com and Chapman University told the Los Angeles Times in March: 'Twenty years ago, you could go to Texas, where they had very low taxes, and you would see the difference between there and California. Today, you go to Texas, the roads are no worse, the public schools are not great but are better than or equal to ours, and their universities are good. The bargain between California's government and the middle class is constantly being renegotiated to the disadvantage of the middle class.'"
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Blockbuster article that shows why California's entire model of political economy has failed.

Should I Stay or Should Furlough Now? | NBC Chicago

Should I Stay or Should Furlough Now? | NBC Chicago: "One of the more controversial pieces of Mayor Daley’s 2010 budget is the requirement for all city workers to take 24 unpaid furlough days.

The only city workers who have been spared from what amounts to an entire month off without pay are the city’s police and firefighters. But that could change.

A representative for the city budget office says the city is in negotiations with police and fire unions to accept furlough days."
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Daley was counting heavily on the Olympics to provide the an influx of private and public revenues that he could distribute to his connected friends. Now he has to face the city budget debacle.

H1N1 Vaccinations To Be Offered To Guantanamo Bay Detainees

H1N1 Vaccinations To Be Offered To Guantanamo Bay Detainees
How nice. The Lake County Health Department canceled the vaccinations they were going to hold this weekend because they can't get enough vaccine. People had to stand in line at 3am on Thursday for the 8am clinic openings. Then they gave people wristbands. Then they ran out of vaccine.

Same thing all over this area, and across the nation.

Do you know what the press and the congressional Democrats would be saying about this situation if Bush were still President?

Dollar Homes Lack Buyers | NBC Chicago

Dollar Homes Lack Buyers | NBC Chicago: "Officials in suburban Barrington put three homes up for a sale at just a dollar a piece - a dollar! - and didn't get a single bidder."
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But there is a catch. All you get is the house, not the land, and you have to move the house out of the "historic" downtown area. The houses are going to be demolished for new development.

Lindenhurst goes HOA

Home Owners Associations
I live in this little exurb. Now I see that the Village of Lindenhurst has added a link to its home page for "Home Owners Associations." So far only two HOAs have appeared on the links page. I imagine the list will grow. The connections between cities and HOAs continue to grow.

Dix Hills condo complex agrees to allow mezuzahs

Dix Hills condo complex agrees to allow mezuzahs: "A Jewish woman from Dix Hills who says her condominium complex discriminated against her by stopping her from displaying a 4-inch mezuzah on her front door has won a settlement after an investigation by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo."
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The mere fact that people even have to file cases like this tells you how screwed up things are.