Copley Press to sell Peoria Journal Star

The Journal Star reports this afternoon that their parent company, Copley Press, is selling all its newspapers in Illinois, which includes the Peoria Journal Star, Galesburg Register-Mail, Springfield’s State Journal-Register, and the Lincoln Courier:

Journal Star publisher John McConnell revealed the news to employees at a 1 p.m. companywide meeting today.

Copley said in a midday release that those papers, along with three in Ohio, will be subject to “possible mergers, sales or other transactions.”

[…] A company spokesman said the company’s decision to sell the Illinois and Ohio properties was affected by both a contraction in the newspaper business and by a looming inheritance tax related to the death of Helen Copley in 2004. Her sole surviving son David is CEO of the company.

[…] The announcement was met with stunned silence by Journal Star employees, many of whom recalled hearing about 11 years ago that the Journal Star, after more than a century of family ownership, was for sale. It was eventually acquired by Copley.

Wow. I don’t know what to say, except that I sincerely hope the employees are treated well.

Northmoor widening unwarranted

Jennifer Davis reports in the Journal Star today that plans are moving forward to “widen and improve” Northmoor Road:

The proposal would be to make Northmoor Road three lanes from Allen Road to Rosemead Drive, which is basically across from the Exposition Gardens entrance. Northmoor would then become five lanes from there until Sheridan Road, and then go back to three lanes from Sheridan to Knoxville Avenue.

I agree that Northmoor needs to be improved — meaning they need better drainage, curbs, sidewalks, etc. But what is the justification for widening it?

There are two nearby east-west routes that have higher traffic capacity — Pioneer Parkway to the north and Glen Avenue to the south. Those east-west streets have a high volume of commercial businesses, which justifies the higher-capacity, five-lane roadways.

Northmoor, on the other hand, provides more than adequate access to the schools (Northmoor-Edison, Richwoods High) and residential areas that lie along its path. The justification for widening Northmoor is clearly not to provide better access to anything along that corridor, but to provide an easier throughway for those wanting to travel from the east side of town to the west side.

In other words, they want to make it a cut-through — a shortcut through a primarily residential area with two schools and lots of little kids. That’s not a good enough reason. To encourage more people to use Northmoor as a cut-through by accommodating faster traffic flow is unwarranted. They wouldn’t let motorists use Prospect Road between Knoxville and Lake that way, so why should they let motorists use Northmoor that way?

The road is already a through street and has a 30 mph speed limit. If anyone wants to use it instead of the larger, faster east-west routes, they have that choice. The city should improve the street, but keep it at its present width for the safety of the residents and school children.

Peoria voter error makes Time Magazine story

Time Magazine Nov 2006Peoria is getting some national press, but not in a flattering way. A story in the most recent issue of Time Magazine begins with this anecdote:

A woman walked into a polling place in Peoria, Ill. last week and proceeded to use one of the new electronic voting machines set up for early voting. She logged on, went through each contest and seemed to be making her choices. After reviewing each race, the machine checked to see if she was satisfied with her selections and wanted to move on. Each time, she pressed YES, and the machine progressed to the next race. When she was done, a waving American flag appeared on the screen, indicating that her votes had been cast and recorded.

But there was a problem. The woman had not made any choices at all. She had only browsed. Now when she told the election judges she was ready to do it again–but this time actually vote–they told her it was too late. Pressing the last button, they said, is like dropping your ballot in an old-fashioned ballot box. There’s no getting it back.

What does that story lead you to believe? When I first read it, it sounded like a voting machine malfunction to me. However, I called the county elections office and talked to John Ramsey. He explained that it was voter error. Apparently the woman misunderstood the instructions; there is no “browse” mode, so to speak, nor a “trial run” at the ballot. You choose your candidates and at the end, you are presented with a chance to review your choices. If you made a mistake and want to change one of your choices, you can go back and make changes. However, once you press the “Cast Ballot” button, your vote is cast and there is no turning back.

Time Magazine concludes:

In one week, more than 80 million Americans will go to the polls, and a record number of them–90%–will either cast their vote on a computer or have it tabulated that way. When that many people collide with that many high-tech devices, there are going to be problems. Some will be machine malfunctions. Some could come from sabotage by poll workers or voters themselves. But in a venture this large, trouble is most likely to come from just plain human error, a fact often overlooked in an environment as charged and conspiratorial as America is in today.

Time mentions Peoria one more time in the article, in this paragraph:

Perhaps the biggest fallacy in this debate is the notion that elections were perfect before Congress decided to hold them on computers. They weren’t. “Stuffing the ballot box” is not an expression from the world of fiction. The problem with overvoting punch cards existed for decades before the dateline PALM BEACH COUNTY became a household term. Peoria County clerk JoAnn Thomas says she routinely tossed out several hundred twice-punched ballots every year. That represents roughly 1% of all registered voters in her jurisdiction.

I called Ms. Thomas to ask her about the article. She hadn’t seen it yet, as it just came out online today. She explained that what the author (Michael Duffy) is describing is a woman who came in and accidentally cast a blank ballot. The voter had not marked any candidates, yet still pressed “Cast Ballot” at the end, apparently thinking that a blank ballot doesn’t count. But it does.

Technically, this is called “undervoting.” Many people undervote to a degree; for instance, if someone just wants to vote for President, but chooses not to vote in any of the other races. However, there is nothing to prohibit someone from casting a completely blank ballot — one where they haven’t voted in any race at all — like the woman in the Time Magazine story.

While the new voting machines allow you to undervote (as did all prior voting methods, Thomas points out), it will not let you “overvote.” For example, you can’t mark Aaron Schock and Bill Spears on your ballot — the voting machine will only let you vote for one. That’s what Duffy was referring to when he said Thomas had thrown out hundreds of “twice-punched” ballots in the past. On the old ballots, if you overvoted, your vote for that race wasn’t counted at all. Now, you’re prevented from overvoting in the first place, so that’s no longer a problem.

The state requires a random sampling of precincts to be audited each election to make sure the voting machine vote total on the hard drive matches the total printed out on the paper receipts. Thomas confirmed that so far there had been no voting machine malfunctions, and the audits have come back perfect.

As long as I had her on the phone, I asked a couple other questions not directly related to the article. I found out that roughly 1,500 people in the county (not including the city) had already voted under the county’s early-voting initiative. She thought it was about the same number in the city, so she estimated that about 3,000 people had already voted in this election. She also confirmed that early voting costs more money and requires a fair amount of staff time to administer, but she won’t know totals until after the election.

I also found out that, contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to know how to spell a write-in candidate’s name exactly to have your vote count. As long as election judges can determine the voter’s intent, and as long as the name is an official write-in candidate (i.e., they’ve filed their paperwork), the vote counts. I’d still recommend knowing how to spell the write-in candidate’s name, just so there’s no confusion. Votes for Mickey Mouse or Elvis Presley aren’t counted, by the way.

Peoria County tax rate to decrease slightly

Budget news from Peoria County:

Peoria County Administration has released its recommended 2007 Peoria County budget. The 2007 budget of $110.5 million is an increase of 6.2% over 2006. Much of this difference is attributed to twenty new funds in an effort to increase the financial transparency between the annual budget and the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report; previously only those funds the County Board had control over were budgeted. Some of the new funds are: emergency telephone system; hazard mitigation assistance; public transportation; Family Violence Coordinating Council; and the World War Memorial capital project.

The estimated property tax rate sees a minimal decrease of less than 1% from May 2006 tax bills. Peoria County Administrator Patrick Urich explains the rationale for the lower tax rate, “Other revenue sources have continued to strengthen, and concerns over the housing market afford the County the opportunity to marginally reduce property tax rates.” Stronger sources of revenue include a 5% increase in income tax and a 3.5% increase in sales tax; licenses, permits, and charges for services are expected to increase approximately 9.4%.

So, the budget is expected to go up 6.2%, but our tax rate will go slightly down (less than 1%). It’s always nice to see a tax rate go down, regardless of how small that decrease may be.

Maybe we should just revoke voting rights

On the Peoria County website there’s an article titled “County Clerk’s Office Encourages Early Voting” (October 9):

The Peoria County Clerk’s Office is ready for the 2006 General Election. It has to be; early voting begins October 16, 2006. While Election Day is Tuesday, November 7, registered voters can begin voting at one of several locations throughout Peoria County as early as next week. The final day to vote early is Thursday, November 2. Persons who have not registered by October 10 and wish to vote in this year’s General Election may do so through Tuesday, October 24. Those living in Peoria County outside the City of Peoria may register during Grace Period Registration at the Peoria County Courthouse. Persons registering during the grace period, however, must also cast their ballot at the time of registration.

Prior to this year’s Primary Election, the Illinois State Legislator and Governor Blagojevich passed a law that allows voters to vote early without having to provide a reason. Although early voters are not required to state a reason, they are required to present photo identification prior to voting. Early voting grants more people an opportunity to vote; the County Clerk’s Office grants more voting opportunities by establishing satellite locations for early voters who live in Peoria County but outside the city of Peoria. An early voting schedule for the General Election follows.

I guess my question is, why? There were already procedures in place to allow for absentee voting. Why the need for reason-free early voting? Apparently it’s an attempt to get more voter turnout. Here’s what a 2004 Washington Post article had to say:

The number of states that offer no-excuse early voting has nearly tripled in the past eight years, fueled in part by the demand for election changes that followed the deadlocked 2000 presidential race. Early voting is transforming the way campaigns do business, and because this presidential race is so closely contested, it could have a significant impact on the outcome.

In some battleground states, voting will commence nearly six weeks before Election Day. For the Bush and Kerry campaigns, that means an earlier start to television, radio and mail advertising, adding to the campaign’s overall cost.

[…] Supporters tout early voting as a way to reverse declining voter turnout. In 2000, only about a third of those registered to vote cast ballots, with more than 50 million opting not to exercise their constitutional right.

In states that offer early voting, the record shows that the convenience has had a modest impact on turnout. It does not turn nonregistered voters into voters, studies show. What it does do, said Michael W. Traugott, a University of Michigan political science professor who has studied the impact of early voting in Oregon, is persuade voters who might miss the odd election to vote more regularly.

I think it would be fair to say that the goal is to woo a lazy electorate to the polls. And I think that’s a waste of time and money. I understand the cynicism many feel toward our electoral system; I understand how some people don’t feel their vote counts due to gerrymandering and other abuses. Nevertheless, it is still a right that only a small percentage of us exercise (less than 40% in non-presidential elections), and that’s a travesty.

Probably the only way people are ever going to get off their collective butts and go to the polls is if the threat arises to take that right away. One would hope that would be enough to motivate people. If it’s not, then I suppose such an apathetic nation as that deserves tyranny.

WORLD CHAMPION ST. LOUIS CARDINALS!!!

World Champions

The Peoria Chronicle congratulates the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals on winning their 10th World Series Championship. GO CARDINALS!

Picture credit: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

I was 12 years old the last time the Cardinals won the World Series. I watched them lose in ’85, and again in ’87. Then the long, grueling wait through the ’90s, aka “the Atlanta years.” Then two years ago, I was convinced they were going to go all the way. 105 wins — the best in all of Major League Baseball that year — and their first trip to the World Series in 17 years. It seemed like their destiny to win. Instead, they were swept by the suddenly curse-free Boston Red Sox. To add insult to injury for me, the Red Sox were the wildcard that year, and I have hated the wildcard since it was instituted.

I got to hate the wildcard again last year. After winning 100 games — 11 more than Houston — the Cardinals had to play Houston again in the League Championship Series because Houston was the wildcard team. What a farce. So the Cardinals were denied back-to-back World Series trips thanks to a system that allows second-place teams a second-chance.

So this year was sweet revenge. They only won 83 games this season, but still won their division. They got in by the skin of their teeth, but they were just getting started. They beat San Diego. They beat New York. And tonight, they beat the Detroit Tigers. Finally, no more hearing about how the Cardinals have gone up three games to one only to lose the series — twice. No more hearing about how the Cardinals “backed into” the postseason. And to make the victory even sweeter — they beat the AL wildcard team.

No doubt there will be a lot of talk on the sports shows and ink spilled about all the Tigers errors that helped out St. Louis. Whatever. Bottom line: the Cardinals played better baseball. They made the fundamental plays. Their pitchers could field the ball better. Their fielders (except for Chris Duncan, who needs to be sent back to the single-A minors) could run in the outfield without falling down and make routine catches. Their offense got the clutch hits. And, most importantly, their pitchers shut down the Tigers bats.

Best of all, now when anyone talks about the Cardinals for the next year, I can say, “you mean the World Champion Cardinals?” Ah, music to my ears!

O’Brien, Pioneer Rail reopen old wounds

O’Brien Steel’s letter to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) regarding the service they received from Pioneer Railcorp several years ago has the two businesses sparring again. Pioneer fired off a response claiming O’Brien was acting as the City’s lackey because they want the City’s help for their expansion plans:

I [J. Michael Carr, President of Pioneer Industrial Railway Co.] am also informed and believe that O’Brien’s letter to the Board was prompted by a desire to get common carrier service ended on the Kellar Branch, so that they can expand their operation over several blocks near the Kellar Branch, and turn the Kellar Branch tracks into a private in-plant rail line. O’Brien likely filed the letter at the behest of the City of Peoria, in order to curry favor with the City, from which they are seeking assistance for said project.

O’Brien quickly countered, stating in a letter submitted yesterday:

Admittedly, O’Brien Steel is a growing business and has hopes of expansion plans in the immediate area of our facility consistent with our previous growth. However, all future expansion plans at the existing location will be limited by public infrastructure including the Kellar Branch, a Greater Peoria Sanitary District (GPSD) sanitary sewer easement, an Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) highway, a P&PU line and City of Peoria streets and
alleys. Effectively, O’Brien Steel is landlocked. There are no current or contemplated expansion plans that have included making the Kellar Branch a “private in-plant rail line.” If the Kellar Branch were to be vacated as suggested by Mr. Carr, the expansion he implies could still not be implemented without a concomitant vacating of the street that serves the Detweiller Marina by the City of Peoria and a 39″ sewer trunk line by the Greater Peoria Sanitary District. I have confidence you would be able confirm that neither of those vacations will ever occur.

However, they did admit that the City reviewed their letter before they sent it to the STB:

Although the letter was reviewed by City of Peoria Corporation Counsel prior to submission directly to the STB, the contents were drafted without input from or modification by the City of Peoria or its counsel.

That would indicate to me that they wanted to make sure the letter didn’t have anything in it that would hurt the City’s case before the STB. Since it passed the test, so to speak, there were no modifications or input necessary.

Pioneer and O’Brien did confirm that the contention between them was largely due to demurrage (a charge payable to the owner of a railcar due to failure to unload the car within the time agreed) — or, as O’Brien Steel put it, Pioneer’s “aggressive issuance of demurrage charges” — that accrued “due to O’Brien being unable to unload cars due to their plant tracks being blocked,” according to Pioneer.

All of this is diversionary, however. O’Brien’s purpose in writing their original letter (ostensibly) was simply to indicate to the STB that they didn’t want Pioneer providing common carrier service to their plant. No problem! Pioneer isn’t asking to provide service to O’Brien Steel, only Carver Lumber. There’s nothing saying Central Illinois Railroad (CIRY) couldn’t continue to service O’Brien while Pioneer services Carver Lumber at the other end of the line. So, the whole issue is a red herring.

For you pro-smoking-ban readers….

There has been some concern that I haven’t been critical enough of the anti-smoking-ban statistics coming out of Springfield. So, for those who would like to hear the other side of the story, Knight in Dragonland has a well-written pro-smoking-ban post here.

As I said in my comments on an earlier post, I’m willing to concede that the statistics could be invalid. It wouldn’t be the first time stats were used that way. However, I still maintain that the main issue — trampling on private property rights in order to impose this smoking ban — is a devil’s pact. Once you start setting these kinds of legal precedents, you’re asking for trouble down the road. If non-smokers want to outlaw smoking, I’m not opposed to that; I’m just opposed to further eroding private property rights to do it.

Movie Review: Who Killed the Electric Car?

I went to see the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car” the other night. It was a de facto private showing, since I was the only person in the theater, proving once again that I’m weird. Yes, I like to watch lectures on C-SPAN and documentaries on PBS, so going to a movie about the demise of the electric car is not unusual for me.

It was pretty interesting; I vaguely remember the electric car of the 90’s. I remember the buzz being that they were impractical because the battery life was too short. Well, according to the producers of the movie, it was much more sinister than that. Essentially, the movie claims that automakers (aided and abetted by the oil industry and the Bush administration) killed the electric car.

They pointed out that electric cars don’t need as much maintenance as their internal-combustion-engine counterparts. Oil filters, air filters, catalytic converters, mufflers, etc., are all eliminated in an electric car. If electric cars became successful, there’s a huge part of the automotive industry that would see big profit losses. And, of course, since they don’t use gas, the oil industry would also see huge profit losses.

The movie-makers conceded that battery-life was a hindrance, but added that that obstacle was easily surmountable as battery technology has improved in leaps and bounds over the past 10 to 15 years. With modern lithium-ion batteries, an electric car can go 100+ miles per charge. Considering the average person only drives around 30 miles per day, this is more than enough for a primary vehicle one would use to commute to work or get groceries. For long trips, one could use a secondary vehicle with a standard gas engine or a hybrid. You can even ask an electrician like MZ Electric or visit sites like xpertelectricllc.com/electrical/ev-charger-installation/ to get an EV charger at home.

The oil companies lobbied against the electric car, and (according to the movie) big-oil lackeys in the Bush administration have convinced the President to pursue unrealistic hydrogen power for motor vehicles which will take years to research, test, and make practical and marketable rather than electric cars, which could be produced immediately with existing technology.

General Motors, which took the brunt of the criticism in the movie, has issued a press release defending themselves. They claim that the cars simply didn’t have enough consumer demand to make it profitable for the auto giant to continue the program. They point out that “only 800 vehicles were leased during a four-year period.”

Critics counter that GM could have done more to make the program successful. They point out that advertisements for the cars were unlike any other auto ad campaign — and if the commercial they showed during the movie is any indication, I’d have to agree. It had an ominous, almost apocalyptic feel to it, with pictures of people’s shadows on the ground, but no people, and a female voice-over that sounded like the opening of the first Lord of the Rings movie. A far cry from normal car commercials that feature hip-looking twenty-somethings, speeding cars, and popular music.

And although GM claims that “a waiting list of 5,000 only generated 50 people willing to follow through to a lease,” critics point to a GM executive in charge of that effort who said on camera (this is not an exact quote, but close), “after we explained all the limitations of the vehicle, only 50 people were willing to lease it.” Some salesman. Ever gone to car dealership and had the sales staff explain all the limitations of a vehicle to you? Also, even though this wasn’t mentioned in the movie, I imagine the fact that you could only lease and not buy the car also had some impact. For example, I’d never lease a car; I want to pay it off as quickly as possible and then drive it until it dies.

I thought the documentary was well done for the most part, although there were several creepy parts that made you feel like these activists love their cars as much or more than other humans. When they showed the EV1s (GM’s electric car model, pictured above) being destroyed, it was like the filmakers were trying to make it look like a WWII documentary of suffering and extermination in concentration camps. When there were many activists holding vigil outside one of the GM plants trying to stop GM from removing/destroying the last hundred or so EV1s, I thought to myself, couldn’t this effort be put to better use protesting the genocide taking place in Darfur or something? Suffice it to say, the movie was a bit over-the-top at points.

Nevertheless, I walked away pretty much convinced that U.S. would be well-served by pursuing electric cars as a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil. And, I was equally convinced that auto makers have no incentive to make such cars, even if there is demand for them, because they can make a lot more money by keeping electric cars out of the marketplace. The only way it will ever happen is if the government demands zero-emission vehicles be built. And that opens a whole new can of worms.

Cable franchise agreement still in the works

Insight Communications’ cable franchise agreement with the City of Peoria expired six months ago, but renewal of the cable operator’s franchise has yet to be signed. I asked City attorney Randy Ray on Monday (10/23) what the status was, and he had this to say:

We have just completed 3 lengthy conference calls. Our attorney is working on a draft. There will be at least one more conference call. We hope to have an agreement in 30 days or less.

It remains to be seen how much longer franchise agreements like these will last. Just this month, California became the latest state to enact statewide cable TV franchises (joining Indiana, Kansas, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia), and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are still contemplating national franchise agreements.