July 2005

170,000 miles and gas prices keep going up. Visits to Marengo, Wayne, Wheaton, Onarga, Beardstown, Sandwich, Mt. Zion, Pekin, Lake Forest, Quincy, Macomb, Taylorlville, Elk Grove Village, Jacksonville,  

Did a multi-day several county drive around and visited GOP leaders, media and others in Jacksonville, Carmen, Winchester, Jerseyville, Grafton & Edwardsville.

WLS Radio personalities Eileen Byrne, Carol O’Keefe and producer Chris Paperdick toured Pontiac & Dwight Correctional Centers with me. They saw first hand what the work environment is like and left with a better appreciation of what the men and women working in Corrections do. I hosted an open house in the board room of my office afterwards and several community leaders and fans of WLS visited and took photos. I have had the opportunity to be on Eileen’s morning show a number of times and it was great to share with her & her colleagues a bit of Central Illinois hospitality with dinner at my home later in the evening.

Several local Public Health Inspectors closed down community pot lucks around the state. I thought the long arm of the law reached beyond it’s scope and passed legislation which would allow private pot lucks to be beyond the long arm of the law (I could not believe we had to go through Legislative action to protect something that has been going on since the Pilgrims and Indians first Thanksgiving, click for more info). Heyworth, in McLean County, celebrated their community potluck with local friends playing music and invited me to be their special guest after having the town tradition closed down for about a year.

Our Networking Party at Harry Caray’s was huge.

See a few photos from this year and get ready for 2006!