ADMIN, slowing posting, contributors & elevating the discourse
I have slowed posting to Proviso Probe lately. I'll probably get fired up again in a couple weeks, but for awhile coverage isn't going to be as comprehensive as normal.
I have invited a couple people to be guest contributors, but they haven't started writing yet. If you want to be a guest contributor, email me, RadioNyberg circled "a" Yahoo spot c0m.
Generally, I'm frustrated at the comments all going back to the interpersonal feuds in Proviso politics. I realize this is part of the discussion, but Proviso Probe would be a better blog if people spent more energy trying to engage the substance of the issues.
If Proviso is going to become a stable, desirable place to live we need to change the culture and the processes. Changing the players provides short-term relief at best.
I have invited a couple people to be guest contributors, but they haven't started writing yet. If you want to be a guest contributor, email me, RadioNyberg circled "a" Yahoo spot c0m.
Generally, I'm frustrated at the comments all going back to the interpersonal feuds in Proviso politics. I realize this is part of the discussion, but Proviso Probe would be a better blog if people spent more energy trying to engage the substance of the issues.
If Proviso is going to become a stable, desirable place to live we need to change the culture and the processes. Changing the players provides short-term relief at best.
posted by Carl Nyberg at
11:46 AM
19 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
By
Anonymous, at 3:31 PM, May 26, 2006
gay bar owner and other people just like you are the ones that make this blog lose credibility. People read this blog just for laughs. If Carl Nyberg is trying to be a serious journalist, he needs to weed out jerks like you.
By
Anonymous, at 10:39 PM, May 26, 2006
Politics as Usual says:
I agree! Not a Nyberg supporter should not forget Welch and his list of cronies and relatives who respond ignorantly on the blog. Let's not forget them.
By
Anonymous, at 11:52 PM, May 26, 2006
Thankfully, I am glad you have gotten to this point carl. I like the blog but please lose the losers by deleting their stupid comments. They will find another place to vent about Welch. I can only assume that these people have an axe to grind with him and want to do it here. The election is over and the people have spoken.
Even the comments from the above are stupid.
Let's move on.
By
Anonymous, at 1:13 PM, May 27, 2006
Chris Welch is the equivalent of Jesus, because even though he devotes his entire life to selflessly helping others, asking nothing in return but the opportunity to serve them even more as a State Rep, he gets quite literally crucified by the likes of Carl Nyberg and all the other haters.
However, like Jesus, Welch will rise again and be elected to a statewide office.
By
Anonymous, at 3:05 PM, May 27, 2006
When they announced the day after the election in Proviso East that Chris Welch lost his state rep, every one was crying. Welch is our father figure, often the father we didn't have at home. Our teacher told us though that just as bad people like Hitler lost in the end, so will Carl Nyberg.
By
Anonymous, at 3:11 PM, May 27, 2006
The previous comments are ridiculous. Welch does not have to impersonate a Christian, because everyone knows he is LUCIFIER. The proviso east student identity takes the cake. Welch you are really sick. Remember to take your pills with a full glass of water
By
Anonymous, at 11:07 PM, May 27, 2006
Interesting how this blog now wants elevated discourse only after an election.
By
Anonymous, at 8:33 PM, May 29, 2006
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
By
Anonymous, at 8:35 AM, May 30, 2006
Carl,
Elevating the subject matter is a step in the right direction.
By
Anonymous, at 8:52 AM, May 30, 2006
I'm not opposed to people trade hard-hitting shots against each other if they stay focused on the public policy issues.
The medium allows it, so why not include some of it? There's certainly an audience.
But I would like to have more discussion of substance on the issues to balance the discussion of personalities.
If you want to write entries for Proviso Probe, email me.
By
Carl Nyberg, at 11:07 AM, May 30, 2006
Don't copy articles in their entirety. It's against copyright law and blogger ethics.
Explain what you think is inciteful about the article, maybe quote a couple paragraphs and provide the URL.
By
Carl Nyberg, at 11:10 AM, May 30, 2006
For the most part, I really like your information, but the comments oftentimes do not reflect what you are trying to say.
By
Cynthia, at 1:56 PM, May 30, 2006
when has proviso poltics been anything but personal. That's the constant since from when I can first remember....
By
Bill Baar, at 9:42 AM, May 31, 2006
Hey Carl, take a look at the Westchester forum/blog.They had to suspend blogging because ,AKA Westchester fan,Mappalled,CulturaItaliana,Bloggerchillout, and other aliases used by one Township Trustee from Westchester, Don Sloan,racked up over 100 messages, from the ridiculous to the sublime to degenerative blogging, that they decided to suspend it.
I hope those in charge of the Westchester Blog don't suscumb to Sloan's outlandish behavior and attempt to crash the system so as the truth of what is occuring in Westchester(just like in Forest Park and Melrose Park and 209 and 88) can be told and discussed). I think all bloggers and advocate of free speech and of good goverment should assist Westchester from falling prey to the Sloan taticts,which they(Sloan and Welch) tried doing to you!!!
By
Anonymous, at 6:35 PM, June 03, 2006
I am sometimes pejoratively referred to as a "hard-line Republican." A more accurate description would be "hard-line conservative-libertarian." I'm a fanatic on the rule of law: we have to obey the laws, no matter how unpalatable they are to us, if we are to remain a viable society. Don't misunderstand, I firmly believe there are times when civil disobedience is the obligation of a good citizen. The illegal immigration situtation, however, is not one of them.
Last Thurdsay night, Francine Busby, a Democratic candidate for the 50th Congressional District in San Diego, said something extraordinary while speaking before a largely "Latino" crowd. Listen,how she stated ,you don't need papers to vote.
This is the Democrat agenda exposed -- inadvertantly, of course -- for all to hear: pandering to a group of voters and telling them that they don't need to papers to vote. Democrats are the party of chaos and the party of destruction. Regardless of how upset you are at the Republicans in November (and I am VERY upset with quite a few of them) remember this sound-bite when you go into the voting booth.
By
Anonymous, at 9:50 AM, June 05, 2006
Nobody asked any of us Illinoisans if we wanted our beloved lottery hung on the sale rack like a melon-colored Nehru jacket.
It’s not just the lottery either. The auction of the Skyway toll road wasn’t put to a vote. The highway, dream child of the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, was just sold off by his son as if it was a diamond pinky ring at his estate sale.
These may just represent a beginning of the pawning of public property to resolve short-term government cash flow problems, as the scheme seems to be gaining popularity among political leaders.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has announced his plan to sell control of the state lottery and then hand over some of the proceeds to Illinois’ allegedly broke public schools.
Whether the financially flourishing lottery can possibly fetch $10 billion as Mr. Blagojevich’s arithmetic presumes, maybe he is selling the wrong state treasure.
Instead of unloading the lottery to fund the schools, why doesn’t Gov. Blagojevich just sell the public school system?
I am certain that some civic-minded, big-hearted, deep-pocketed company could turn around the schools in a semester or two and still manage to turn a profit.
All of us who pay property taxes know that the amount of money coming into the schools isn’t a problem and never has been. We’re tapped out. So, the chronic quandary the schools face must be a result of how our property taxes are being spent after the bags of loot arrive at the school districts.
If the governor were to outsource administration of the public schools, the first thing that would happen is a complete review of the current administrators. This is what such a survey of State Board of Education files would reveal:
• There are more than 100 school district officials in Illinois who currently make more than the governor himself. More than 100 school officials are paid an annual salary of $200,000 or more. Three years ago there were only 15 making that much.
• All but a few of the 100 highest paid school administrators work for districts in the Chicago suburbs.
• They are not just district superintendents rolling in dough. Some are the district under bosses.
• According to state records for 2005, the highest paid Illinois public school district official is James Hintz, who worked in Lincolnshire’s Stevenson High School District 125. Mr. Hintz’ salary in 2005 was $361,146.
That was quite a feat, considering that Hintz was not even the superintendent. He worked as the assistant superintendent for business services, commonly known as the business manager. He made $100,000 more per year than the actual superintendent.
That wasn’t always the case. Mr. Hintz’ base salary ballooned as part of a lucrative retirement deal. Under the state retirement system, it is an employee’s final year salary that is used to formulate pension benefits.
Therefore, since retiring at the end of last school year, Mr. Hintz has been receiving pension checks totaling $200,000 a year and will continue to do so until the day he dies.
How can this happen? John Bauman, the executive director of the State Teacher’s Retirement system, told me that his personal opinion is Hintz’ retirement package was “legal, but devious.”
“That’s his opinion,” said Hintz, 56, who now works as an educational consultant in addition to collecting his $200,000 annual school pension. “Everything was done with the full knowledge of the school board and met all the provisions of the teacher retirement system.”
Indeed, the practice of padding career-ending salaries to boost school administrators’ pensions became so common that the Illinois General Assembly recently passed legislation capping pre-retirement pay increases at 6 percent.
But even that won’t necessarily put an end to Hintz-style golden parachutes. Bauman says “in situations where school boards feel that they have a need to compensate extraordinary performance or reward an administrator for a job well done over a career of service to the district at rates above 6 percent, they may continue to do so at their expense.”
Still, there are way too many highly paid “public” school bosses in Illinois. Even a one-eyed corporate hatchet man could easily cut down the number of superintendents, assistant superintendents, business managers, assistant business managers and assistants to the assistants.
Under a business plan, district managers’ positions would be consolidated, second tier administrators would be eliminated and private sector executive pay would be scaled back and decreased to public service levels.
The money that would be saved on this alone could result in the hiring of hundreds of new teachers to carry out the core function of our schools: educate children. There might even be a few bucks left over to start a performance incentive program for teachers, which would link improved test scores to bonus checks.
Judging by the most recent results of statewide science testing, something needs to be done. Almost three-quarters of Illinois’ fourth- and eighth-graders flunked the test on physical, life and earth sciences. The results were even lower than five years and worse than the national average.
Selling the Illinois Lottery might be an easy answer. It certainly would be politically expedient for the governor if it could be tied up with a neat ribbon before the November election.
It would pump some fast money into the schools. But if the cash just ends up fattening administrators’ wallets, why not leave the Lotto alone?
By
Anonymous, at 8:29 AM, June 06, 2006
As a former Writer, there is nothing more than i hate then when someone steals my article, because in essance, you are stealing from me....
Carl as a Newspaper man yourself, this is something that you shoudl not stand for...
The Long and the short of it is this
We have been stricken by Plagarism again...
I knew this article looked famaliar, so I looked at the Daily Herald Website again..
and Sure enough, someone stole Chuck Goudie's Article and tried to call it their very own...
Carl, This has to stop or sooner or later someone is gonna really beef and then we will all be in a fine kettle of fish
BTW
Here's the notation for the article
http://www.dailyherald.com/opinion/goudie.asp?id=196372
By
Anonymous, at 11:37 AM, June 06, 2006
Hey Carl, why are we not talking about the reason we are able to have the freedoms we have today is because 62 years ago today brave american men sacrificed there lives and liberated europe from the nazi's. Let's celebrate this victory, because we would'nt be doing this today without there sacrifice!
By
Anonymous, at 2:34 PM, June 06, 2006
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