AREN’T TORNADOES TERRIFYING? Starting this month, City Water, Power & Light
customers will be hit with a $1 surcharge for the city’s new
million-dollar tornado-warning system. Was the monthly surcharge necessary
— or could city officials have tapped another source of revenue? In
Indiana, for example, municipalities can use federal homeland-security
funds to pay for outdoor warning systems, thanks to recent action by that
state’s General Assembly. In Springfield, “there were some alternatives
explored, and the money wasn’t immediately available,” says Ray Serati, a city spokesman.
“We needed this fixed now.” (What exactly these alternatives
were — federal grants, a dunk-the-mayor fundraiser —
isn’t clear. “That’s all Ernie gave me,” Serati
says, referring to the vacationing Ernie
Slottag, the city’s No. 1 mouthpiece.) The chance of tapping Illinois’
homeland-security money is remote. Patti
Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois
Emergency Management Agency, says that no specific grant program for
tornado sirens exists. Moreover, the Illinois Terrorism Task Force, which
comprises about 60 state agencies, lays out its strategy and decides how to
spend homeland-security dollars — and right now, tornado sirens
aren’t on the task force’s radar screen. If that changes, Ward 1 Ald. Frank Edwards says he’ll
support a repeal of the dollar surcharge — and refunds to utility
customers. But Edwards notes that it’s a difference without much of a
distinction: “Let’s be honest; any tax dollars are our tax
dollars. It doesn’t matter where it comes from.”
TORTURE CHANGED Sami al Hajj, a Sudanese
photojournalist working for Arabic news network Al Jazeera, alleges that he
was beaten, sexually abused, and denied proper hygiene and had his whiskers plucked one
at a time and his knee crushed by guards. That afternoon spent in line at the DMV doesn’t
sound so much like torture now, does it? The Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition
International has identified June as Torture Awareness Month. On Monday, June 19, Springfield will mark the occasion
with a panel discussion, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., in the Carnegie Room North
of Lincoln Library, Seventh Street and Capitol Avenue. A torture survivor
is expected to be among the panelists. There will also be a display on torture and testimony
from survivors at Lincoln Library, and on each Wednesday of the month an
informational vigil will be held at noon at the northwest corner of the Old
State Capitol Mall, Sixth and Adams streets. Other scheduled events include a White House call-in
so that concerned citizens can sound off to POTUS — or whoever
answers the phone — about our culture’s growing acceptance of
torture. For a complete list of events, visit www.tassc.org.
SOLD! The numbers are in, and Land
of Lincoln Goodwill Industries got a shot
in the arm worth nearly $10,000 from an auction held June 3 at its North
10th Street headquarters. Barking simultaneously, two auctioneers worked for
more than four hours, selling hundreds of goods ranging from junk —
there was, it turned out, no big market for ceramic soap holders in the
shape of animals — to treasures such as an old whiskey jug that
fetched more than $200. Who knew? All this and more was found a couple of months ago in
a locked storage area on the second floor of the Goodwill building, above
the thrift store. Sharon Durbin, Goodwill director, says the exact tally came to $9,875.
“It would have been much better if we could have had a larger
crowd,” she says. Still, she professed satisfaction at what amounts
to a windfall no one expected: “I’m very, very pleased.”
This article appears in Jun 15-21, 2006.
