Double digits
The last time the nation had a 10.2 percent unemployment rate, "E.T." was the highest-grossing movie at the box office, the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers in the Brew City World Series, "The A-Team" was one of the top 10 TV shows and the King of Pop was about to release "Thriller." It was 1982 and Ronald Reagan was in the White House and was blamed for the nation's job losses that hit Illinois, which had a 12.2 percent jobless rate, and the rest of the "Rust Belt" hard. Back then, it was the first time since 1940 that unemployment in the U.S. topped the symbolic double-digit mark.

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Into overdrive
Lake County transportation officials kicked off a hardball lobbying campaign the other day to get the proposed Route 120 and Route 53 projects off dream sheet status and into overdrive. It's about time. County voters in an advisory referendum in April sent a clear message to county and state officials that they want Route 53 built from its current abrupt end at Lake-Cook Road north to Route 120 in Grayslake. That ties in nicely with the Route 120 project which proposes widening the state route to a four-lane arterial highway with limited access between Almond Road in Gurnee and Volo, including a seven-mile bypass around the existing path of Route 120 in the area of Grayslake.

Flu shots
It may be tempting for some to criticize the Lake County Health Department for its initial handling of the H1N1 vaccination program, but from what we can tell they've been doing it exactly by the book. An overwhelming demand for the swine flu shots and nasal mists at the department's first round of clinics last week drastically depleted its meager government-supplied vaccine supply. After inoculating 12,650 residents Thursday and Friday, the department was forced to cancel countywide clinics scheduled for the weekend. Undoubtedly, that frustrated worried parents and many county residents who didn't receive the shots in the first round. The county had requested 100,000 doses.

It begins
Three months from today, the Feb. 2 primary election will be held. A year from today, Nov. 2, 2010, the general election. Yet, we've been bombarded with campaign propaganda since Labor Day. Anybody else feeling campaign overload even before it's officially begun? Hundreds of candidates finished filing their petitions to be on the primary ballot Monday in Waukegan and Springfield. Locally, it appears most incumbents will have no primary opposition on either the Democratic or Republican ballots. Despite complaints from unruly voters, it appears few will have the opportunity to express their displeasure at the primary polls come February.

A testing enigma
Looking at the latest round of Illinois school report cards, No Child Left Behind remains an enigma for judging classroom performance. A majority of Lake County school districts failed to make adequate yearly progress, based on annual Illinois State Achievement Test scores. Statewide, it's not much better. These annual results may not show off the fine jobs students and teachers do in classrooms across the county, but fair or not, this is how students and teachers are being judged. By the state, by the feds, by parents.

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Paying the piper
Another session of dreamland opened in Springfield on Wednesday. That's the world, inhabited by legislators and politicians, where money is promised for services, but no cash actually exists to pay for them. Gov. Pat Quinn, noting short-term borrowing is routine in state government, now wants to borrow about $900 million so the state has cash to pay its bills. If it happens, once again, Illinois will be borrowing to pay the piper. The governor says the state is suffering through the worst financial times in its history. Guess he wasn't around in the Great Depression, huh?

H1N1 mania

Kermit the Frog of "Sesame Street" has long lamented, "It's not easy bein' green." These days, it's not easy being a parent with H1N1 mania sweeping the nation. Should parents send their kids to school and risk coming in contact with the bug, knowing that access to the vaccine to fight it is still a day, a week or longer away? Are the students claiming to be too ill to go to school really sick, and if so, with what? A cold, seasonal flu, H1N1? How concerned should parents be?

Halloween safety
For the first time in a long, long time, every Lake County community save one has scheduled trick-or-treat hours on Saturday, Oct. 31, the real Halloween. Which means little goblins, devils and vampires will be roaming their respective neighborhoods seeking treats. That being the case, it seems like a good time to remind parents of safety issues involved in trick-or- treating. Lake County has been fortunate over the years in that children have been safe and vandalism has been at a minimum.

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Our View: Losing Trees

Native to Asia, the emerald ash borer’s larvae kill a tree from the inside and when it dies the borers move on to the next tree. Since it was first spotted in Michigan in 2002, it has spread to 12 other states and threatens the existence of the tree as a species.

Staking a claim
At first blush, Waukegan spending $116,000 for a lobbyist would be equal to about two police officers, which means only five would be losing their jobs come Oct. 31. But if city officials are right in their gamble, the money spent to lobby for federal funds could be worth much, much more. In times like these, you put your money down and you take your chances. Which is what the City Council decided to do this week, shelling out the cash and signing a year-long contract with Washington, D.C.-based Ferguson Group. The firm already represents Lake County government in the nation's capital, along with dozens of mid-sized cities across the country. It will help with grant filing, walking grants through the federal bureaucracy maze and putting in a good word with members of the state's congressional delegation.

The senior freebie
Like so many things Illinois government has come up with lately, the idea of giving free mass transit rides to senior citizens sounded like a great idea. While every transit agency in the state warned they didn't have the funding available for such a program, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich still went ahead with his populist move and doled out the free passes. After all, who can deny seniors a freebie? Besides, they vote.

Opting out
There will be no video poker in unincorporated Lake County, which should be no surprise to anyone. The County Board voted overwhelmingly this week to ban video gambling within the shrinking unincorporated areas the county controls. Given the issue, surprisingly few people let County Board members know they wanted video gaming at their neighborhood watering holes. Indeed, the only ones in favor were members of the Lake County Tavern Owners Association.

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Warren's folly
Warren Township officials want to step outside their curtilage at Almond Road and Washington Street to build a new, multimillion dollar sports complex for baseball, football and lacrosse. In the midst of a recession, in the midst of furloughs and pay cuts, in the midst of unemployment nearing 10 percent in Lake County. Are we missing something here? Is this extra truly needed?

College funds
Illinois lawmakers are back in Springfield today, although we don't expect them to get much done. If they do get around to business, they should address cuts in the Illinois Monetary Award Program, also known as MAP grants. Lawmakers cut funding in half for the program, and that's affecting about 145,000 low-income Illinois students who get financial assistance through it. They only budgeted enough to cover about $2,600 per student through the first semester, which means come January, state collegians depending on the funding will lose it.

Making it better
If you are of the opinion kids today are usually up to no good, a chilly fall morning in North Chicago should dispel that notion. On Saturday, dozens of teens, accompanied by older supervisors, volunteered and took to the city's streets to paint over graffiti, pick up trash and clip branches as part of North Chicago's Fall Cleanup 2009.

A foreign concept
Since Lake County began its growth and development boom in the 1970s, we've heard the same mantra: Effective, efficient mass transportation systems are needed throughout the collar counties. We've seen and experienced the traffic congestion that can add an hour or two a day to our commuting time. We've paid for and rejoiced at the opening of an added lane, only to find that soon our travel times revert to what they were before the lane widening -- or get longer, because that new lane encouraged other motorists to use that road.

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