| A Falcons town no more
Blank finds his own decision-making being questioned publicly more than ever. The only franchise considered in worse shape is the 1-14 Miami Dolphins - and they just convinced Bill Parcells that was a better job. Blank knows. Rebuilding the front office and roster represents only part of the equation. This off-season also will be about regaining credibility, not just locally but league-wide. The Falcons have been a coveted destination for free agents. Players came here or stayed here, partly because of money but also because of perception of the team's direction. That's gone now. The Falcons' win total the last four seasons has steadily dropped: 11, 8, 7, 3. As Blank searches for a new general manager and coach, candidates will stop to ask themselves why things haven't been working.
Downstate lawmakers should have stuck together
There also are concerns that this action on Chicagoland mass transit will make it even tougher for state lawmakers to successfully engineer a capital improvement program.As long as downstate votes were needed to OK the mass transit bailout, there was at least a chance to link the bailout to a long-needed capital improvement bill - which would fund school construction in Southern Illinois, allow the work to begin on a nearly $50 million Transportation Education Center for Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and fund highway and infrastructure improvements.We had leverage as long as the bailout and capital bills were inseparable, and the Southern Illinois lawmakers who refused to consider one proposal without the other should be thanked for their determination and perhaps remember favorably on Election Day.Senators Gary Forby, D-Benton, and John Jones, R-Mount Vernon, held the line and voted "no." Representatives Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, John Bradley, D-Marion, and Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg, also voted "no."Thank you, gentlemen.Voting "yes" for the mass transit bailout were representatives Kurt Granberg, D-Carlyle, and Dan Reitz, D-Steeleville.Senator David Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, did not vote.What were you thinking, gentlemen?Although the approval of mass transit relief and free rides for seniors came with assurances from Gov.
Inquiry call as mail still missing
York Crescent resident Margaret Lockwood Croft, whose son Shaun died after the boat collided with a dredger and sank, wants an investigation into the missing mail. Ms Lockwood Croft, who runs campaign organisation the Marchioness Action Group from her home, said: “They should give us an explanation of what has happened and a full apology.
“Our regular postman went on holiday and during that time I didn't receive anything, not a sausage or even the usual junk mail." Neighbours began discussing their lack of post and were surprised to find that more than 100 households had been affected. Residents went to the Royal Mail headquarters in Station Road, Aldershot, to find out what had happened to their post, only to be told that it had left the depot. “I don't know if somebody's been pilfering, but it says something when you can't rely on sending a letter," Ms Lockwood Croft said.
Valley loses leader in Miriam Wilson
Miriam Wilson of Squirrel Valley, a very prominent member of the Kern Valley community for many years, passed away Oct. 25. She was 75. Wilson started the Century 21 Real Estate office locally in 1977, which later grew to three offices and dozens of agents. She sold the business and retired in 1997. Over the years Wilson was very active in the community and held many offices. She was founding president of the Kern Valley Hospital Found-ation. She was president of the Lake Isabella Chamber of Com-merce in 1981 and 1982 and was their Woman of the Year in 1986 and 1989. She also served on the Lake Isabella Community Services District and with the Kern C.H.I.C. to try to get the freeway through the canyon completed. Many prominent valley citizens worked with her.
A "Bradley Effect" for Blacks?
Mystery Pollster vs. Kos: On bogus charges of Lieberman "push polls." 12:50 A.M. "Progressive Realism": My colleague Robert Wright's bigthink foreign policy op-ed is currently #4 on the NYT's most e-mailed list, and gaining on Shamu! Here are some questions I hope to take up with Wright on bloggingheads.tv tomorrow: 1. Isn't it crude and unfair to accuse President Bush of failing to understand "the perspective of the other," including "why some people hate America, and why terorists kill"? As E.J. Dionne notes, one premise of the neocon "Big Bang" theory on which Bush acted in Iraq was precisely that "authoritarian regimes bred opposition movements rebelling against the conditions under which too many people lived." Sounds like empathy to me! 2. Wright discounts the short-term costs --in terms of frustrated aspirations and resentment--of delaying the introduction of democracy while we wait for its inevitable natural triumph in the wake of free markets and free trade.
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