If issued between 1/1/2004 and 12/31/2007:

· Must clearly display all material terms and conditions including expiration dates and fees

· If no expiration date, a toll-free number must be provided so the consumer can determine when the card expires.

· If subject to a fee, it must contain a statement clearly and conspicuously printed on the gift certificate stating whether there is a fee, the amount of the fee, how often the fee will occur, that the fee is triggered by inactivity of the gift certificate, and at what point the fee will be charged.

If issued after 1/1/2008:

· Must remain active for at least five years from date of issuance.

· NO fees allowed; Card may not be penalized in any way for non-use or untimely redemption of the gift certificate.

· Must clearly display all material terms and conditions including expiration dates and fees

gift card pile

Excluded gift cards & gift certificates:

· Prepaid phone cards

· Prepaid internet cards

· Cards usable with multiple sellers of goods or services (e.g. mall cards, VISA gift cards, etc.)

· Award, loyalty or promo cards issued for no cost

· Nonprofit and charitable gift cards for fundraising purposes

· Gift cards for food products (restaurants not included).

File complaints for noncompliance with the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General’s office by visiting www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov or calling one of the following hotline numbers:

Chicago: 1-800-386-5438 and 1-800-964-3013 (TTY)

Springfield: 1-800-243-0618 and 1-877-844-5461 (TTY)

Carbondale: 1-800-243-0607 and 1-877-675-9339 (TTY)

Yesterday, with just over a month to go (34 days) before a vote whether to convene a Constitutional Convention in the State of Illinois (per the 1970 Illinois Constitution), Cook County Circuit Court Judge Nathaniel R. Howse Jr. ordered the language of a statewide referendum on the constitutional convention modified, calling aspects of the current proposal misleading and false and ordered the state to draft notices informing voters of the change to the original ballot question by Friday.

“What I’m trying to do is do the right thing by the people of Illinois,” Howse said during a hearing that featured testimony in lawsuits led by the Chicago Bar Association and Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn against Secretary of State Jesse White and the Illinois State Board of Elections on the referendum’s wording.

"Make sure you have enough paper"

The plaintiffs had the following issues with the ballot questions in its current form:

Problem #1: The question of whether to call the Seventh Illinois Constitutional Convention inaccurately state that not voting on the referendum amounts to a “no” vote. — “The failure to vote on this question is the equivalent of a negative vote.”

Problem #2: They also recount that the last constitutional convention referendum, in 1988, failed. — “In 1988, the electors rejected the call for a constitutional convention, with 75 percent voting against calling a convention and 25 percent voting in favor of calling a convention.”

Problem #3: Why did a General Assembly committee draft the referenda when that is the sole responsibility of the SOS?

Note: Hawaii and Connecticut have similar questions on their ballots…both states have short questions without explanations.

Judge Howse ordered the lawyers to come up with a new version by Friday morning and offered a suggestion: printing the new question on separate paper that carries an official government seal and distributing that at polling places on election day (see Option #4 below).

What’s next?

Option #1: Order that new ballots be printed with neutral and factually correct language. – Too expensive for reprinting and staff; Update and retest equipment leading to higher risk of errors; problems with ballots already sent or received to redo.

Option #2: Cross out objectionable language by hand. – Too much risk of mistakes; ink bleeding; argument of “unfair attention” drawn to question; more voter confusion and questions.

Option #3: Cross out the objectionable language with a sticker. – Similar issues as #2; risk of ballot reading machine problems.

Option #4: As the Judge says, hand out additional information to voters explaining the problems with the language. – Must agree on what THAT language will say; “bad” language still on ballot nonetheless; still cause much confusion; printing/labor expenses; risk of proper distribution.

Option #5: Invalidate question (vote in 2010) – Question stays on ballot but voters informed question will not be counted (signs at polls).

What is clear?

Illinois voters deserve an unbiased and properly informed vote on this important issue…which makes 2010 seem like the only realistic option.

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golden parachute

WaMu’s new, and now past, CEO Alan Fishman could be facing a magnificent golden parachute.

He could walk away with $19.1 million for the 18 days he was on the job before WaMu was taken over by the Feds. That’s $11.6 million in cash severance on top of the $7.5 million signing bonus

He could be “earning” what would equate to an hourly rate of over $127,000 an hour (assuming 10 hour work days for 3 weeks).

OR he could TURN DOWN the parachute and just step out of the plane with the rest of America by just accepting his salary ($1 million/yr), which translates to $19,230 per week, and receive a base pay of about $60,000 before taxes for all his troubles….ok, and keep his $7.5m signing bonus, fine!

I’m sure his “landing” would still be much softer than most of ours.

OR Congress might just limit that parachute in the mean time.

Either way…my mortgage, student loans, car, utilities, credit card, insurance and cat food balances will still be there waiting for me and my neighbors tomorrow and the next day. What, me worry?

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illinois eye of sauron

Last weekend, someone erected an “Eye of Sauron,” made famous in the Lord of the Rings movies, on the construction of the new McFarland Memorial Bell Tower on the south end of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus.  While it was probably a bit dangerous to scale the structure, it was a harmless prank that surely put a smile on a lot of faces and gave some kids some stories and pictures to tell their own kids about someday!

Another classic college prank came in 2004 at the Yale vs. Harvard football game when Yale students duped almost 2,000 Harvard fans into holding up placards that spelled out “WE SUCK” for the rest of the stadium to admire.  This prank clearly came as an adaptation to the original stadium prank at the Rose Bowl game between Minnesota and the Washington Huskies in 1961 were Cal-Tech students spelled “CALTECH” with the placards in the audience for 30 million viewers on TV to see.

The modern urban landscape that is the Office Cube has become a location ripe for pranks from packaging peanut filled drawers to tin foil wrapped everything!  College dorm rooms rank right up there with the Office Cube as a likely target zone.  While technology changes the methods, e.g. prank call websites, the simple, classic pranks are usually the best.

Yale vs. Harvard Football Game, 2004

Unfortunately, some pranks can go bad…as seen by the Aqua Teen Hunger Force panic in Boston.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force prank

…and as seen by the gross Bonsai Kitten do it yourself kits (yes, yes…fake).

…and even turn very tragic, as seen in last year’s fatal accident on the Bradley University campus in Peoria a 19 year old student went to bed after a night of drinking and his friends fired two Roman candles under the bedroom door.  The prank did not end with their friend emerging screaming in outrage at the joke played on him, rather he died of smoke inhalation.  A very sad and tragic event for all involved.

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“The university [of Illinois] system’s ethics office sent a notice to all employees, including faculty members, telling them that they could not wear political buttons on campus or feature bumper stickers on cars parked in campus lots unless the messages on those buttons and stickers were strictly nonpartisan. In addition, professors were told that they could not attend political rallies on campuses if those rallies express support for a candidate or political party.”

No way the University dares enforce this “official policy” to any degree.  I can certainly entertain the “suggestion” by the UofI to not wear political buttons, etc. while teaching class…but bumper stickers in the parking lots?!  C’mon!

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Today we find out that a restaurant located on the Meijer store footprint, Boston’s The Gourmet Pizza at 2501 N. Prospect Ave., is closed for “reasons unknown” aka financial failure after less than 2 years of operations in its newly constructed, custom building.

And so another piece of empty retail space will sit on North Prospect and join the other empty properties including the old Best Buy, previously WalMart now old Steve & Barry’s, Blockbuster, World Market, Dog ‘n Suds and so on.

Can acres of concrete be replaced with fields of crops?  Reverse urban sprawl…make it so!

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So, what is the answer, especially after Urbana just released a new total population figure of 40,550 from its 2008 special census.

Champaign: 75,254 (2007)

Urbana: 40,550 (2008)

University: 41,342 (2008; not including students’ families)

Savoy: 5,650 (2004; 2008 special census in progress)

TOTAL: 162,796

For “official” numbers, the visiting University students would not be including, but to get a better overall picture of the size of the community.

Who cares? The cities care and so should their people! For example, in 2008, Urbana paid about $165,000 for a special census, but expects a return on that expense of an additional $700,000 to $800,000 in state motor fuel taxes, state income taxes and state use taxes over the next few years due to the higher population total. The cost of the census pays for itself several times over in just a couple years’ time…not bad!

The next census by the U.S. Census Bureau will be conducted in 2010, with new census figures taking effect in 2011.

By the way…at the time of posting this blog, the U.S. Census Bureau’s estimates for the U.S. and World populations are:

U.S.: 305,234,695

World: 6,725,496,822

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Illinois State Curfew: <17 yrs old: midnight on Fri/Sat nights, 11pm Sun-Thu nights. 720 ILCS 555/1(b).

Nighttime Driving Restricted Hours in Illinois Vehicle Code: <18 yrs old: his/her license is invalid after 11pm Fri/Sat night; 10pm Sun-Thu nights. 625 ILCS 5/6­110(a-1).

Without taking the multiple exceptions to these statutes into account:

(1) 17 yr old can be out at anytime, just not behind a wheel at certain times.

(2) 16 yr old driving at 10:30pm on a Tuesday night is not violating state curfew, but is driving on an invalid license.

Does an underage driver’s valid insurance become ineffective once the clock strikes a certain hour too? i.e. if you’re going to crash, crash early! I’m sure the wording of the policy would need decoding, but my guess is it favors the insurance co.

According to one attorney, a case from about a year ago allowed insurance carrier to dodge coverage because it does not cover illegal acts. In that case, the driver was DUI. The court ducked the question, does that mean every minor traffic offense the insured commits (failing to use turn signal, speeding) allows the insurer to negate coverage? If not, what’s the distinction between those and DUI? Or a curfew violation?

So…my point to twofold: (1) point out the conflicting and confusing time frames laid out for our youth in Illinois and (2) raise the question of how far can laws, made for the purpose of protecting the safety of our youth, go before being overbearing. Should driving be considered a privilege, regardless of age, or a right? Does it matter if there is no public transportation available in a person’s area? Does such a law put extra pressure on kids who want to “get out” of bad situations, e.g. party turns ugly, sleepover second thoughts? Or are less kids driving at night, hence less accidents and lost lives.  How does law enforcement handle each “excuse” in a fair manner?

Maybe every drive home from a friend’s house must be from a “prayer group” — 1st Amendment expression of religion?

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I think at around 2am last night they pushed the “ON” button…or was it that they got the machine up to 88 mph?!?

Anyway, the Large Hadron Collider sure didn’t receive too much press (besides the “end of the world…mini black holes” banter) for being a project 10 years in construction at a cost of $9 billion!

Dr. Emmett Brown: Then tell me, “Future Boy”, who’s President in the United States in 1985?
Marty McFly: Ronald Reagan.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Ronald Reagan? The actor?  [chuckles in disbelief]
Dr. Emmett Brown: Then who’s VICE-President? Jerry Lewis?

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But the focus of the day was on the unveiling of renovations at Memorial Stadium and recognizing some of the top players in Illinois Football history.  Our new seats with my parents in the balcony under the new luxury boxes and 77 Club were outstanding.  It is wonderful to see the historical masterpiece that is Memorial Stadium preserved while the updates add to your comfort and enjoyment.

Go ILLINI!

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